Ten Roses
by chameleonwho3
Summary: When Rose has the same dream again and again, she discovers that BAD WOLF is still alive in her. What will happen if the Doctor finds out her feelings for him? Will he admit the same? Or will he dismiss the thought of her? And what of BAD WOLF? How will he react to that?
1. Something Remembered

**Author's Note:** So this is my first story and I'm a total Whovian. This story doesn't have a beta, so i would really like reviews, criticism or otherwise. I hope you like it.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Doctor Who, I really, _really_ wish I did though.

The Christmas Invasion

Something Remembered

_The big, yellow, recovery truck was finally hooked up the TARDIS's heart door._

_"Put your foot down! Give it some more, Mickey!" Jackie was calling._

_ Rose stood anxiously, practically dancing with anticipation, waiting for that strange compartment to open up. The chain started to creak as the small door grow weaker. The clasp broke as the opening sprang upward, and a golden aura, floated around the TARDIS. Rose channeled it directly into her entire mind and being. Suddenly, her mind was like the sky, stretching ever onwards and upwards. She knew what the Doctor had meant, by seeing everything, and feeling the motion of the Earth, rotating, spinning, and pushing themselves to the front of her head, wanting to be thought of or known first, but she had to get to the Doctor._

_ The doors of the TARDIS slammed shut as the impossible blue box, flew to where it was needed most. Then off they were, through the Time Vortex, back to Satellite 5. All the way there Rose's mind kept growing, not stopping once until the TARDIS materialized on level 500 and the doors had flung themselves open._

_The Doctor spun around in confusion and then flinched in fear. A flicker of annoyance and awe illuminated his eyes, as he stumbled backward to land squarely on his bum. The golden dust reached forward and there was Rose, materializing before him, gold swirling out in all directions._

_"What have you done!" clearly not seeing why Rose had to come back for him._

_"I looked into the TARDIS. And the TARDIS looked into me." Rose said with a slight smile creeping onto her lips. _

_"You looked into the Time Vortex, Rose, no one's meant to see that!"_

_"This is the a-abomin-ation!" the Dalek Emperor seemed to scream._

_"Ex-ter-mi-nate!" a Dalek cried, shooting a beam of energy directly at Rose. Immediately, the glowing aura around her pulsed as she raised her hand and the beam deflected it back toward the Dalek who had sent it. _

_"I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself. I take the words..." she waved her hand, "I scatter them in time and space." the letters of BAD WOLF CORPORATION scattered, "A message to lead myself here." Her voice was starting to sound less and less human and more alien with each sentence, the Doctor thought._

_"Rose, you've got to stop this. You've got to stop this now!" the Doctor said urgently, "You've got the entire vortex running through you're head. You're gonna burn!" you couldn't mistake the fear in his eyes as he looked up at her emotionless face._

_"I want you safe." he was taken aback by how strongly she spoke the words, "My Doctor. Protected from the false god."_

_"You cannot hurt me. I am immortal." The Emperor stated._

_"You are tiny! I can see the whole of time and space, every single atom of your existence, and I divide them." The Daleks dissipated, starting at their heads and base, into the same dust encasing Rose, "Everything must come to dust... all things. Everything dies. The Time War ends."_

_"I will not die! I cannot die!" the Emperor squealed, for a "true Dalek" he wasn't quite reaching the standards. Rose stood, face lifted slightly upward, with her arms straight out on either side, fists clenched._

_"Rose, you've done it. Now stop. Just let go."_

_"How can I let go of this? I bring life..." She breathed._

_"But this is wrong! You can't control life and death!" he practically shouted._

_"But I can." Rose said looking back down at him, "The sun and the moon... the day and night. But why do they hurt?" she whispered in a trembling voice, a frown starting to replace the smile that had been there only seconds ago._

_"The powers gonna kill you and it's my fault!" the Doctor continued with a pained expression and he lowered his head ashamed of what he had done. If had allowed her to stay than this never would have happened._

_"I can see everything." the Doctor looked up at her, "All that is... all that was... all that ever could be."_

_"That's what I see! All the time. And doesn't it drive you mad?"_

_'My head...' her eyes were growing shinier, she was scared._

_"Come here." The Doctor said. _

_"... it's killing me..." her entire face was starting to reflect the pain she was feeling within, tears had started to run slowly down her cheeks._

_"I think you need a doctor." He replied with a swift smile as he leaned in and kissed her. Rose opened her eyes as the last of the golden light trickled out of her and she collapsed into the Doctor's arms, unconscious. He laid her gently down on the floor, the gold now swirling in his eyes, as he took a deep breath and blew the aura back into it's home, into the TARDIS. He shook himself, trying to remain upright. He smiled a bit and brushed Rose's bangs off of her face, scooped her up his arms, like a baby, and carried her into the TARDIS._


	2. Someone Unknown

Someone Unknown

Rose woke with a start. She had had this dream before, but it was starting to make sense. It had to be connected to a couple of nights before, when the Doctor had regenerated into the pretty bloke with his brown hair sticking straight up in the front and melting brown eyes, Bad Wolf hadn't just entered her; it had bound itself to her. Somewhere in her, Rose had a goddess lying dormant. The Doctor had taken the heart of the TARDIS out, but not the part that had made her seem to have magical powers, making the Daleks dust just by thinking it, keeping the Dalek's beam from hitting her.

She couldn't stop thinking about the Doctor's regeneration process. The golden light shooting from his hands and head, the way that she had seen his face literally morph into his present face. So yeah, this Doctor was better looking, but she had loved his big ears and goofy smile, this man, he wasn't the same. She had fallen in lo… she cared for the other Doctor. The man now running about the console, in the Doctor's clothes just wasn't him, he didn't have the same air about him, his personality was completely wrong and he didn't even seem to have a single similarity to the Doctor she knew.

The ride became unexpectedly rough. Rose fell onto the grate floor as the entire was thrown against something hard and then another thing. They finally skidded to a stop toppling over some trashcans.

The Doctor rushed to the doors, which he yanked open and then peered out,

"Here we are, then! London! Earth! The solar system! We did it!" he said excitedly. "Jackie! Mickey! Blimey! No, no, no, no, hold on. Wait there, I've got something to say." he backed up babbling to himself, "There was something I had to tell you. Something important, what was it? No, hold on hold on. Hold on, tch, tch, tch, tch… Oh! Oh! I know," he breathed heavily. "Merry Christmas!" and with that he collapsed at their feet in a puddle.

Rose walked opened the door and walked, seeing him on the ground she immediately asked,

"What happened? Is he all right?"

"I, I dunno, he just sort of keeled over." Mickey said a bit confused, "But who is he? Where's the Doctor?"

"That's him. Right in front of you. That's the Doctor."

Jackie looked up with a look of disbelief in her eye, and Rose could tell that she just wouldn't believe it until he convinced her, "What do you mean, "that's the Doctor"? Doctor Who?"

People were starting to stare at them. _Why, why, why do they always have to stare?_ She wondered annoyed that they were even interested in what was going on.

"Come on; let's get him inside. We don't want an ambulance to come do we? _Two hearts…"_ she whispered, even if this wasn't _her_ Doctor, he was still the doctor, she didn't want him to be dissected in a lab or something worse, pickled or preserved and stuffed into some science museum.

She and Mickey hoisted him up so that they could half carry, half drag him to the elevator, so they could get to their apartment.

"But how is _he_ the Doctor? The Doctor doesn't look anything like that, thought I have to say… but still! He just can't be the Doctor can he?" Jackie continued to pester Rose.

"Mum, I told you, he's the Doctor and I'm going to have to leave it at that, ok? Now _please_ stop asking questions, it's hard enough to explain as it is and open the bloody door!"

Her mom scrambled to unlock the door as the Doctor muttered about dogs with no noses and a planet that was made out of some sort of cheese in his sleep. Rose smiled slightly at that, he was alike with her Doctor in that way.

They dragged him into the extra room and lifted him onto the double bed. Then came the final question, who was going to put him in pajamas? Did they even own any men's pajamas? Eventually they all put the pj's on him, because Rose didn't trust her mum to do it and both she and Mickey felt awkward at the thought of seeing him in his underwear, if he wore underwear… Rose didn't want to think about that as they shimmied his pants off him. Luckily he _was _wearing underwear.

After they had gotten him into his pj's Rose had made sure that he was tucked in and they let him sleep on. Rose sat on the edge of the bed for a while, and heard him utter

"Rose… must, tell her" Rose wondered what he had to tell her, or if he was even talking about her, but he must be, I mean she was the only Rose he knew right? She left to her own room and kicked off her battered trainers and snuggled under the covers not bothering to change.


	3. Waiting

Waiting…

Rose was sitting in the same spot as the night before, on the edge of the bed at the Doctor's knees.

Jackie came in with a pink stethoscope in hand,

"Here we go," she said passing it to Rose, "Tina the Cleaner's got this lodger, medical student. And she was fast asleep, so I just took it." She seemed rather proud of herself as she said so. Rose placed the cold rubber nubs into her ears,

"Though, I still say we should take to a hospital." Rose took the stethoscope out again,

"We can't. They'd lock him up! They'd dissect him. One bottle of his blood could change the future of the human race." she said for the hundredth time. Why didn't her mom get it?

"No, shh!" she placed the cold metal disk on the left side of the Doctor's chest. There was a strong definite beat, so she moved over to the right side, and there it was again, another strong heartbeat.

"Both working." Her mom just looked at her as if she had just lost it.

"What d'you mean "both"?" annoyed that Rose was trying to trick her.

"Well, he's got two hearts." _Seriously, he has two hearts; do you think I've gone mental?_ Rose wanted to yell at her mom, she could just be _so_ stupid sometimes.

"Don't be stupid!" Jackie said.

"He has."

"Anything else he's got two of" she asked curiously after a bit of a pause.

"Leave him alone." Rose couldn't believe that her own mum had just asked such an embarrassing question, because she didn't know if he could hear them or not, being a Time Lord and all. Jackie raised her hands in defense, but Rose just shook her head and walked out of the room. Just as she had left a small stream of golden light drifted out his mouth and out the window to space.

"How can he go changing his face?" her mum demanded, Rose ignored her, closed the fridge and continued to do what she had come here to do: get breakfast, "Is that a different face or is he a different person?" Why did Jackie always have to ask the questions that usually had a very long and complicated answer that she didn't understand or no answer at all?

"How should I know?!" she clearly didn't have enough time or energy to put up with this kind of question, "Sorry. The thing is... I thought I knew him, mum. I thought me and him were… and then he goes and does this!" tears were forming in her eyes, she quickly wiped away some of the wetness with the back of her hand and she sniffled, "I keep forgetting he's not _human._ The big question is... where did you get a pair of men's pajamas from?"

"Howard's been staying over." Jackie said, turning.

"What, Howard from the market?" how had this happened in the first place?

"How long's that been going on?"

"A month or so. First of all, he starts delivering to the door and I thought, "that's odd". Next thing you know, it's a bag of oranges…" Jackie said, Rose didn't really want to all about her relationship with "Howard".

"Is that Harriet Jones?" she asked staring at the telly.

"Never mind me..." her mum said rolling her eyes.

"Why's she on the telly?"

"Prime Minister now, I'm 18 quid a week better off. They're calling it "Britain's Golden Age". Keep on saying "my Rose has met her"." Jackie said with a grin.

"Did more than that. We stopped World War III with her. Harriet Jones..." She smiled at the memory.

"Harriet Jones, what about those calling the Guinevere One Space Probe a waste of money?" asked a reporter.

"Now, that's where you're wrong. I completely disagree if you don't mind. The Guinevere One Space Probe represents this countries limitless ambition. British workmanship, sailing up there among the stars." Harriet Jones responded rather calmly and Rose laughed at the fact that she had actually done it; she had become Prime Minister.

"This is the spirit of Christmas, birth and rejoicing, and the dawn of a new age, and that is what we're achieving fifteen million miles away, our very own miracle." a rather small, balding man piped excitedly into the microphone. He must be one of them scientists behind it all, Rose thought.

Images and video clips of the probe were then shown in traveling to Mars, saying that they would be receiving the first reading that night. Oh, the Doctor would have loved to have seen this, Rose thought remembering how his face had lit up the first time she had seen Earth from outer-space. Harriet Jones! Prime Minister! He had said something about her being Prime Minister, but Rose hadn't believed it would happen. She could imagine the face he would have pulled when Jackie said she was Prime Minister. His cold blue eyes glinting in triumph and his dorky grin spread across his face.

"Ha! Rose Tyler! Ha!" she could imagine him pointing his finger at her, trying hard not to laugh, "I told you, I just told you!" But her Doctor wasn't here or at least she refused to believe it. The man lying in the spare bedroom, with a teddy bear tucked in with him just wasn't the same.


	4. The Pilot Fish

The Pilot Fish

"So, er, what d'you need? Twenty quid?" Mickey said handing Rose the money.

"Do you mind? I'll pay you back." sticking the money into her front pocket.

"Call it Christmas present." he chuckled.

"God, I'm all out of sync. You just forget about Christmas and all those things in the TARDIS. They don't exist. You just get sort of... timeless." Rose said looking around at all the people, something she hadn't seen in a long time.

"Oh, yeah, that's fascinating, 'cos I love hearing stories about the TARDIS." Mickey said sarcastically, "Ooh, go on Rose, tell us another one, 'cos I, wow, I could listen to them all day. TARDIS this, TARDIS that."

"Shut up" she rolled her eyes with a smile.

"Oh! One time in a biiiig yellow garden, full of balloons!"

"I'm not like that!" she gave him a playful shove.

"Oh, you so are!" Mickey protested, grinning.

"Hmm, must drive you mad. I'm surprised you don't give up on me."

"Oh, that's the thing isn't it? You can rely on me. I don't go changing my face."

"Yeah. What if he's dying?" she asked worriedly.

"Okay." Mickey said exasperatedly, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk.

"Sorry!"

"Just let it be Christmas. Can you do that? Just for a bit. You and me and Christmas. No... no Doctor, no... no bog-monsters... no life or death." Mickey pleaded.

"Okay." Rose said tiredly.

"Promise?"

"Yes!"

"Right! What you gonna get for your mum?" he asked pulling her over to some tents with little odds and ends scattered about on table tops, "I'm round there all the time now, you know? She does my dinner or Sunday... talks about you all afternoon, yap, yap, yap, yap..." Rose looked around her and noticed how odd the four Santa's looked, who were playing old Christmas carols, they had unnatural, plastic faces. How would anyone be able to play a trumpet with a mask like that on? One turned to look at her, they probably just wanted donations, but there was that sort of air about them, something wasn't right. She looked over her shoulder again, now they were walking toward her at even pace. Rose stopped walking as she noticed one of handling their horn like a firearm. Ugh, this always happened to her, no matter what. Suddenly the trumpet was spewing fire everywhere within 10 feet, Rose grabbed Mickey and they hide behind a cart.

"It's us. They're after us." She said breathlessly and than screamed as one aimed a stream of fire at them. They ran. It was like playing dodge ball. If you dodged the flames you survived, if you got hit, you would get killed or badly burned, and don't even think about trying to catch it. The street was in havoc, people limping, tents burning and collapsing, carts flung to their sides.

"What's going on? What have we done? Why are they after us?" Mickey cried.

"Taxi! They're after the Doctor."

"I can't even go shopping with you. We get attacked by a brass band." Mickey complained, "Who are you phoning?"

"My mum." she pressed the pink case to her ear, "Mum, get off the phone!" she cried irritably.

"But, who were... those Santa things?" he sounded like a little kid who was hiding from the thunder.

"I dunno. But think about it, they were after us. What's important about us? Well, nothing. Except the one thing we've got tucked up in bed. The Doctor."

Soon she and Mickey were racing into the elevator and bolted into the living room, where her mom was standing, talking to somebody about visiting.

"Get off the phone!" Rose said flatly, rushing in.

"It's only Bev! She says hello."

"Bev? Yeah, look, it'll have to wait." Rose said pressing the end call button, "Right, it's not safe, we've gotta get out. Where can we go?"

"My mate Stan, he'll put us up." Mickey said, sure that this was the best idea ever.

"But that's only two streets away. What about Mo? Where's she living now?" there was not one possible way that she and the Doctor would be separated.

"I dunno! Peak District!" Her mom cried.

"Oh, we'll go to Cousin Mo's then."

"It's Christmas Eve! We're not going anywhere! What are you babbling about?" her mom said looking at Rose as if she were off her rocker.

"Mum... Where'd you get that tree?" Rose asked staring at the perfect, cone shaped spruce, impeccable, down to ever ornament, strip of tinsel, and needle. That wasn't right, they always had their little white plastic tree, since when did they get a real tree?

"That's a new tree. Where'd you get it?"

"Well, I thought it was you." Jackie said looking over at the tree then looking back at Rose.

"How can it be me?" Rose asked, wondering how such a silly idea had gotten into her mother's head.

"Well, you went shopping, there was a ring at the door, and there it was!" Her mom said simply.

"No, that wasn't me." That was when Jackie realized that something had to be wrong. Typical of her to be the last one to figure it out.

"Then who was it... ?" she knew why Rose had been so keen on getting away now. Rose grabbed Jackie's arm and pulled her over. The small stars wrapped around the evergreen, lit up section by section.

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me." Rose said. The tree was starting to spin slowly, like an amusement park attraction. A strong wind greeted their faces; it had to be because of the tree. They stumbled backward clutching at each other. Jackie was starting to shriek as it hurtled toward them, hacking up anything that got in its path. Mickey bravely brandished a chair at the tree's braches while Jackie ran to the door and Rose yelled over the rumble,

"We've got to save the Doctor!" She ran to the bedroom door and just looked at him for a moment.

"What are you doing?!"

"We can't just leave him!" Rose had that desperate look on her face that she knew only too well, she was in love. Jackie knew exactly who she was in love with too, it had to be the Doctor, if it wasn't than she was completely lost. Rose and the Doctor may be able to see an alien in a second, but they couldn't spot love, they were completely blind. Just than, Jackie looked back to the living room to see Mickey holding out a chair that was slowly getting turned into wood chips.

"Mickey! Leave it! Get out! Get out! Mickey Get out of there!" she motioned vigorously with her arms, but Mickey didn't move.

'Mickey!' He finally moved as it ate the rest of the chair and he ran to the bedroom and started to pick the Doctor up.

"No leave him, just leave him!"

"Get in here!" he yelled. Jackie looked back at the tree and jumped in the room screaming. She and Mickey moved the tall wardrobe in front of the door.

"Doctor, wake up!" Rose cried in frustration. She heard the tree almost at the door, trying to break through the wardrobe, while her mom squealed. Rose ran over to the Doctor's leather jacket and pulled out his sonic screwdriver. Mickey and Jackie were pushing against the wardrobe with all their might, trying to prevent it from being thrown out of the way. She rushed back to the Doctor's side and placed the sonic screwdriver in his hands, but he didn't move, he wasn't awake. Jackie and Mickey jumped out of the way as the tree broke through. They all jumped into different corners, except for the Doctor, who looked like a Basilisk had petrified him. The tree started spinning wildly around the room when Jackie squeaked in horror,

"I'm gonna get killed by a Christmas tree!" and with that she curled into an even tighter ball. Rose crawled over to the Doctor and whispered in his ear,

"Help me." At that moment she felt tempted to kiss him. Wait, what? Kiss _him_? He wasn't_ her_ Doctor. He sat straight up, and pointed the sonic at the whirling tree. It vanished with a couple of sparks that reminded Rose of miniscule fireworks. Rose looked over at him. Maybe he was the Doctor.

"Remote control. But who's controlling it?" he asked jumping out of bed. They all stood up tiredly and followed him outside onto the terrace while he pulled on a bathrobe. He stopped when he saw the Santa's. Rose was watching his expression to see what he would do.

"That's them." Mickey said leaning over the railing, "What are they?" He raised the sonic slowly and the Santa's walked backwards slowly than stopped and disappeared in a blue beam. The Doctor looked up at the sky. Mickey shook his head in amazement,

"They've just gone!" he laughed a little, "What kind of rubbish were they? I mean, no offense, but they're not much cop if a sonic screwdriver's gonna scare them off."

"Pilot Fish."

"What?" Rose asked. Everyone had shifted uncomfortably at what he had said.

"They were just Pilot Fish." He seemed to choke a little and than he fell backward and gasped. Rose clung to his arm staring at him fretfully. He let out a series of painful noises, as he slid jerkily and down the wall and lowered his head. Jackie immediately rushed over to the other three,

"What's wrong?!" she said reaching toward him. He looked as if he were fighting to keep breathing.

"You woke me up too soon." he was looking directly at Rose. His breathing grew heavier, "I'm still regenerating. I'm bursting with energy." With that he opened his mouth and a stream of gold flew out his mouth, "You see? The Pilot Fish could smell it. A million miles away. So they eliminate the defense, that's you lot, and they carry me off. They could run their batteries on me for a couple of years!" he cried, he said years just as another shock went through him and he cried out in pain, being thrown to the opposite side of the terrace. Jackie was making those useless, annoying little "oh's" over and over again.

"My head!" he shot out through gritted teeth, his face was turning red, "I'm having a neuron implosion." He said looking at Jackie who didn't know what the hell he was saying in the least, so she just tried to look sympathetic, "I need..."

"What do you need?" she asked.

"I need..."

"Say it. Tell me, tell me, tell me..."

"I need..."

"Painkillers!"

"I need..."

"D'you need aspirin?"

"I..."

"Codeine? Paracetamol? Oh, I dunno, Pepto-Bismol?"

"I need..."

"Liquid paraffin? Vitamin C? Vitamin D? Vitamin E?" she listed more medicines that she could think of.

"I need..."

"Is it food? Something simple? Uh... Bowl of soup? A nice bowl of soup? Soup and a sandwich? Bowl of soup and a little ham sandwich?" her voice had risen hysterically at this point.

"I _need_ you to _shut up!"_ he cried in annoyance, gasping for breath.

"Oh, he hasn't changed that much has he?" Jackie asked looking at Mickey who was just staring at her, not believing that she could be so thick! It was obvious that the Doctor didn't want her to talk at the moment. He launched himself to his feet and hit the wall on the side he had been on previously, still groaning with pain. She grabbed his arm as he said,

"We haven't got much time. If there's Pilot Fish, than… Why is there an apple in my dressing gown?" he pulled a granny smith out of his pocket with a quizzical expression.

"Oh, that's Howard's, sorry." Jackie said seeming to think that that had explained everything.

"He keeps apples in his dressing gown?"

"He gets hungry." she nodded.

"What, he gets hungry in his sleep?"

"Sometimes." Jackie nodded. The Doctor let out another shriek as he slid down the wall. His face contorted in pain,

"Brain... collapsing..." he managed to get out, "P... the Pilot Fish," he said looking at Rose, "The Pilot Fish mean… that something, something… Something's coming.' He said gasping and shaking all over and with that he collapsed into Rose's lap.


	5. A Broken Machine

A Broken Machine

Mickey and Rose picked him while Jackie stood making "oh's" again, standing nearby. They carried him back into the bedroom and Rose pulled off his robe and tucked him in again. She stayed with him, wiping his face with a washcloth. It looked like a typical fever, but knowing the Doctor, he was still getting used to his body. He was shivering even though he under a thick, fluffy comforter. Rose was even more convinced that he was the same man as before because of the way he had acted to her mom. She leaned down a bit further, not sure whether or not to kiss his forehead just as Mickey walked by with his laptop under his arm. She looked up to see him looking a bit sadly at the sight before him before he continued on to the living room.

Rose leant down slowly and kissed the Doctor on the forehead and he smiled slightly in his sleep. She continued to mop his face and neck gently. She got off the bed as smoothly as she could, as to not disturb the Doctor and she crept out of the bedroom and into the living room, twisting her hair in agitation.

"It's midnight. Christmas day." handing Rose a mug of steaming tea, "Any change?" she asked Rose noticing how worried she was.

"He's worse. Just one heart beating."

She looked up at the telly, which was talking about how contact with the Guinevere One Space Probe had just been made and the shock that they had lost its signal earlier that evening.

"Here we go, Pilot Fish. Scavengers, like the Doctor said." Mickey said. Rose got up and crossed over to the laptop, "Harmless, they're tiny, but the point is that the little fish swim alongside the big fish.

"Do you mean like sharks?"

"Great big sharks. So, what the Doctor means is, we had them... now we get that." He said gesturing to the image of a shark snapping at the screen. Rose had known something like this would have happened, something always happens when you're with the Doctor.

"Something is coming..." She glanced back at the telly and than at Mickey again, "H-how close?" she asked.

"There's no way of telling," He shook his head, "but the pilot fish don't swim far from their daddy."

"So, it's close?"

"Funny sort of rocks." Jackie piped up, talking about the blurry image on the TV. Rose looked at her and than at the TV.

"That's not rocks..." she said very certainly. Mickey and her got up and leaned closer to the telly. The image was becoming clearer and something roared on the screen and they all jumped back. Rose grabbed the remote and started flipping through all of the news channels, it was everywhere: "alien life forms exist".

Rose sat on the couch annoyed that this had to happen today of all days, she was worried about the Doctor and she was having mixed feelings about him. So she just sat staring at a stain on the rug that looked somewhat like a banana, this made her smile remembering the time that Captain Jack had mentioned a sonic banana.

"Rose. Take a look, I've got access to the military." The computer screen showed Earth and what looked like a giant football heading _very_ fast toward the planet, "They're tracking a spaceship. It's big, it's fast, and it's coming this way."

"Coming for what, though? The Doctor?"

"I dunno. Maybe it's coming for all of us.'"

The image changed and the alien said some weird string of sounds that probably meant something of importance, but Rose couldn't understand it. That was an odd new feeling, not knowing what people and things were saying, the TARDIS had always translated, and now Rose was in the dark.

"Have you seen them before?"

"No." she wished she could have said yes because maybe than she would have a small idea of what to do. They just sat there watching the screen as a string of what sounded like German and Russian and Spanish mixed together flowed through the speakers, "I don't understand what they're saying. The TARDIS translates alien languages inside my head, all the time, wherever I am."

"So, why isn't it doing it now?" Mickey asked.

"I don't know. Must be the Doctor. Like he's part of its circuit, and he's... he's broken."

She looked around for Jackie, but she wasn't there. She was in the bedroom kneeling next to the Doctor, a man who she had said she hated.

"Oh, come on, sweetheart." Her mom said gently and the Doctor started opening and closing his mouth, "What do you need? What is it you need, tell me..." She had been sleepy for a while waiting for the Doctor to wake up, so Jackie was sitting on the ground her head on the mattress, feel asleep, just like the Doctor. Rose stood looking at them, how peaceful the Doctor looked, and how strange it was for her mom to be in the same room as him with out arguing about something. She felt alone. She needed her Doctor.

Mickey walked up behind her and saw what she was looking at.

"The Doctor wouldn't do this." she told him gazing forlornly at the, "The old Doctor. The proper Doctor. He'd wake up. He'd save us."

"You really love him, don't you?" Mickey asked her. She didn't answer, but the answer was evident, so she just sighed and lay her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, than turned and hugged him.


	6. The Great Big Shark

The Great, Big, Shark

"Sandra?" Rose popped her head out the door at hearing the familiar voice.

"He won't listen. He's just walking, he won't stop walking!" Sandra cried turning to face Rose and than back the way her husband was walking. Mickey had joined her at the door and they were both staring at the blue rings of light around Jason's head, "There's this sort of... light, thing. Jason! Jason! Stop it! Right now! Please Jason!"

Rose walked outside and Mickey followed, closing the door behind him. She walked over to the railing and looked down. She gestured to Mickey and pointed at the streams of people walking as if in a trance. They followed the crowd up to the roof where they found Sandra still trying to snap Jason out of it,

"Stop, Jason, stop!" she clung to his shirt. She, Rose, and Mickey all looked down, it had to be at least 12 floors up, if not higher.

"What do we do?" Mickey asked her. Rose was looking around at all the people on the roof.

"Nothing." She said, she couldn't think of anything, and the Doctor was still conked out in bed, "There's no-one to save us. Not anymore." Mickey just looked at her like she was crazy. So they walked back to Rose's apartment and turned on the telly and there was Harriet Jones, and the one thing that stuck in Rose's mind was this:

"Doctor. If you're out there... we need you. I don't know what to do. If you can hear me, Doctor... If anyone knows the Doctor, if anyone can find him... the situation has never been more desperate. Help us. Please, Doctor. Help us." During that little message, Rose found her eyes getting watery and she walked to the bedroom door and leaned against the frame, and let a silent tear escape down her cheek. There he was, just sound asleep in bed. She was starting to sob, the kind of son that shakes your entire body. How could he have abandoned he like that? He had never down this to her before and she was lost. Jackie walked over to her and Rose grabbed her shoulders.

"He's gone. The Doctor's gone. He left me, mum. He left me, mum..." She sobbed and her mom pulled her into a hug. Jackie knew exactly what it was like to loose the person you love.

"It's all right... I'm sorry..." She whispered and kissed her on the forehead.

When the entire building shook and all the windows shattered they crouched down to protect themselves.

Mickey ran downstairs and outside he looked up and his face showed a look of awe as a shadow started to cover the apartment building. Rose and Jackie stood staring up as well. There was an enormous space ship covering almost the entire sky. Rose ran back upstairs, the others following on her heels.

"Mickey, we're going to carry him. Mum, get your stuff, and get some food. We're going." she ran into the bedroom and pulled the robe back onto the Doctor.

"Well, where to?" Mickey asked.

"The TARDIS. It's the only safe place on Earth."

"What are we gonna do in there?" Jackie asked incredulously.

"Hide." Rose said.

"Is that it?!"

"Mum, look in the sky. There's a great, big, alien invasion and, I don't know what to do, all right? I've traveled with him, and I've seen all that stuff but when I'm stuck at home, I'm useless. Now, all we can do is run and hide, and I'm sorry. Now, move." Rose said desperately, "Oh, lift him." She lifted his shoulders and Mickey lifted up his feet, so that they were holding him awkwardly, and they hobbled slowly across the terrace, and down the stairs rather slowly. Jackie came out of the door carrying about eight bags.

"Mum, will you just leave that stuff and give us a hand!"

"It's food!" Jackie stopped to adjust the positions of the bags on her arms, "You said we need f –"

"Just leave it!" Down they went, three flights of stairs. The entire time shuffling slowly and once they had reached the TARDIS, Rose passed Mickey the TARDIS key rather awkwardly and they were in. Rose and Mickey lay the Doctor down next to the console, robe, pin stripe pajamas, slippers, and all.

"No chance you could fly this thing?" Mickey asked.

"Not anymore, no."

"Well, you did it before..."

"I know, but it's sort of been... wiped out of my head, like it's forbidden." She lied, she didn't want to lie, but she had to protect the Doctor because he wasn't there to save her now, "Try that again and I think the universe rips in half."

"Ah, better not then."

"Maybe not."

"So, what do we? Just sit here?" he complained. Rose wished Mickey and her mom would just disappear right now. They didn't understand the situation, not like the Doctor did. If only he would wake up!

"That's as good as it gets!" She retorted. That when she noticed that her mom was fiddling with a thermos full of tea. Tea! Why was it always tea?

"Right, here we go. Nice cup of tea." She held it out to Rose.

"Hmm, the solution to everything..."

"Now stop your moaning. I'll get the rest of the food." She handed the thermos to Mickey instead and ran off.

"Tea. Like we're having a picnic while the world comes to an end. Very British." Seeing that he was getting nowhere Mickey changed the subject, "How does this thing work?" he said looking at the console, "It picks up TV, maybe we could see what's going on out there. Maybe, we've surrendered. What do you do to it?" he asked pressing a few buttons.

"I dunno, it sort of tunes itself." Rose said walking over and she started to fiddle with the buttons and knobs. The TARDIS seemed to be transmitting something, hopefully not to the aliens.

"Maybe it's a distress signal.'" Mickey decided.

"Fat lot of good that's gonna do."

"Are you gonna be misery all the time?"

"Yes." She said nodding.

"You should look at it from my point of view, stuck in here with your mum's cooking." he said.

"Where is she?" Rose asked looking around, Mickey shrugged, "I'd better go and give her a hand." Rose said getting up, "It might start raining missiles out there."

"Tell her anything from a tin, that's fine!" Mickey called as she walked to the door.

"Why don't you tell her yourself?"

"I'm not that brave." He confessed. Rose turned just as she was about to go outside.

"Oh, I dunno..." She smiled at him and he placed the tea at a dangerous angle on a flat space on the console. She opened the door and somebody grabbed her from behind, she let out a piercing scream as a monster dragged her away.

"Rose?" Mickey cried dropping the thermos on the TARDIS floor, tea dripped down through the grate as he ran out to find Rose.

"Get off! Get off me! Mickey! The door! Close the door!" he ran as fast as he could to the TARDIS just managing to close them when another monster grabbed him. Mickey and Rose were pulled to where a very familiar person was standing. It was Harriet Jones.


	7. An Awakening

An Awakening

There were things all around them chanting in that strange tongue. Rose looked up and she saw aliens going up as far as she could see.

"Rose." Harriet cried, they grabbed each other in a tight embrace, "Rose, I've got you! My Lord. My precious thing. The Doctor... is he with you?"

"No. We're all on our own." She said looking at the only alien that looked different. She and Harriet released each other as the leader walked toward them pointing and chanting accusingly.

"The yellow girl. She has the clever blue box. Therefore she speaks for your planet." A man to Rose's left read.

"But she can't." Harriet said.

"Yeah, I can."

"Don't you dare." Mickey said looking at her.

"Someone's gotta be the Doctor." She said nervously.

"They'll kill you!" Harriet cried, grasping her arm.

"Never stopped him." Rose said, taking her arm out of Harriet's hands. A roar of chatter burst out above them, "I, um... I address the Sycorax, um, according to... Article 15 of the Shadow Proclamation. I command you to _leave _this world with all the authority of... the Slitheen Parliament of Raxacoricofallapatorious, and, um... the Gelth Confederacy... A... as uh... sanctioned by the Mighty Jagrafess... and... Oh, the Daleks! Now _leave_ this planet in _peace!_ In peace..." She knew that there was no way that that speech of her's was going to work on them. All of the aliens laughed a raspy laugh and Rose looked around nervously.

"Shoo gon gon flak shkee-re!" the leader spat.

"You are very, very funny." The man read.

"Shoo galeah shak sheefflik!"

"And now you're going to die." He translated looking at Harriet, who was rushing to Rose shouting,

"Leave her alone!"

"Don't touch her!" Mickey joined. They were both grabbed by aliens and held back.

"Shoo dash gee feen na mase toe warsh ah sharpeen!"

"Did you think you were clever with your stolen words?"

"Gorra fazee korra!"

"We are the Sycorax, we descried the darkness."

"Sycorax el felees." The leader hissed in Rose's ear, causing her to flinch with a squeal.

"Naycoracko oo felnah soan bea."

"Next to us you are but a wailing child."

"If sho pa pass your planet ma we kas champion…"

"If this is the best your planet has for a champion…"

"Then your world will be gutted…"

"... then your world will be gutted…"

"... and your people enslaved." They said at the same time, "Hold on, that's English." The man translating everything said.

"He's talking English." A confused Harriet stated.

"You're talking English." Rose said.

"I would never dirty my tongue with you're primitive bile!" he cried.

"That's English. Can you hear English?" she asked everyone behind her, Harriet nodded.

"Yeah that's English." Mickey agreed.

"Definitely English." Said the man next to Harriet.

"I speak only Sycoraxic!" the leader yelled.

"But if I can hear English…" Rose put the pieces together: the TARDIS, "then it's being translated... Which means it's working. Which means…" she turned to face the blue box and everybody followed her example. The doors opened and there was the Doctor, pinstripe pajamas and all, he looked at her and smiled,

"Did you miss me?" he asked. The Sycorax leader cried and swung his whip at the Doctor, who wrapped it around his hand and pulled it out of his hands, "You could have someone's eye out with that!" he told the leader walking towards him.

"Odair!" the leader cried raising his staff, the Doctor grabbed it and broke it across his knee.

"You just can't get the staff. Now, you, just wait. I'm busy." With that he turned to face them, "Mickey! Hello! And Harriet Jones MP for Flydale North! Blimey, it's like "This Is Your Life." Tea!" he said to Rose, "That's all I needed! A good cup of tea! Super-heated infusion of free radicals and tannin. Just the thing for healing the synapses. Now... first things first... be honest. How do I look?"

"Um... different." Rose said.

"Good different or bad different?"

"Just... different."

"Am I… ginger?" he asked very seriously.

"No, you're just sort of brown." she said motioning with her hands.

"Aww, I want to ginger! I've never been ginger!" he whined, he spun around and pointed at her, "And you, Rose Tyler, sat lot of good you were, you gave up on me, oh, that's rude. Is that the sort of man I am now, am I? Rude. Rude and not ginger."

"I'm sorry, who is this?" Harriet asked.

"I'm the Doctor."

"He's the Doctor." Rose repeated.

"But what happened to my Doctor?" Harriet continued, "Or is it a title that's just passed on?" The Doctor walked towards her.

"I'm him." He said, "I'm literally him. Same man, new face, well, new everything."

"But you can't be."

"Harriet Jones. We were trapped in Downing Street and the one thing you were scared of wasn't the aliens... wasn't the war... it was the thought of your mother being on her own."

"Oh, my God." She said disbelievingly.

"Did you win the election?" he asked.

"Landslide majority." she smiled.

"If I might interrupt." the Sycorax leader said as the Doctor turned around.

"Yes! Sorry! Hello, big fella!" He said smiling.

"Who exactly are you?"

"Well. That's the question."

"I demand to know who you are!" the leader yelled.

"I DON'T KNOW!" the Doctor yelled back, "See there's the thing. I'm the Doctor, but beyond that I, I, just don't know. I literally do not know who I am. So I'm testing. Am I funny? Am I sarcastic? Sexy?' he winked at Rose while saying so, "Right old misery? Life and Soul? Right-handed? Left-handed? A gambler? A fighter? A coward? A traitor? A liar? A nervous wreck? I mean, judging by the evidence, I've certainly got a gob." his eyes wandered around the ship before landing an orange button. "And how am I going to react when I see this. A great big threatening button!" he ran over to it laughing maniacally, "A Great Big Threatening Button That Must Not Be Pressed Under Any Circumstances. Am I right? Let me guess, it's some sort of control matrix? Hmm? Hold on, what's feeding it? And what have we got here?" he asked pulling open a tiny door. He stuck his finger into the pool of red liquid, "Blood?" he tasted it, "Yeah, definitely. Blood. Human blood. A positive. With just a dash of iron." he flicked his tongue about trying to rid his mouth of the taste before continuing, "But that means… blood control... Blood control! Oh! I haven't seen blood control for years! You're controlling all the A positives. Which leaves us with a great big stinking problem. 'Cos, I really don't know who I am. I don't know when to stop. So if I see a Great Big Threatening Button Which Should Never Ever Ever Be Pressed... than I just want to do this." He slammed his hand down on the orange glowing button.

"No!" everyone shouted.

"You killed them!" the translating man cried.

"What do you think big fella?" the Doctor asked the Sycorax leader, "Are they dead?"

"We allow them to live."

"Allow? You've no choice! That's all blood control is. Cheap bit of voodoo. Scares the pants off you, but that's as far as it goes. It's like hypnosis... you can hypnotize someone to walk like a chicken or sing like Elvis, you can't hypnotize them to _death_. Survival instinct's too strong."

"Blood control was just one form of conquest. I can summon the armada and take this world by force." The leader said.

"Well, yeah, you could, yeah, you could do that, course you could. But why?" the Doctor asked, "Look at these people, these human beings, consider their potential. The day they arrive on the planet and blinking step into the sun. There is more to see than can ever be seen. More to do than... no, hold on... sorry that's "The Lion King". But the point still stands. Leave them alone!" he cried.

"Or what?"

"Or…" the Doctor said grabbing a Sycorax's broad-sword, "I challenge you." all the Sycorax were now shouting, "Oh, well that struck a chord! Am I right that the sanctified rules of combat still apply?" he asked taking off his robe.

"You stand as this world's champion." the leader roared.

"Thank you. I've no idea who I am, but you've just summed me up' he said tossing his robe to Rose, 'So, do you accept my challenge or are you just a cranak pel casacree salvak?' As he said that the leader hissed and all of the Sycorax held up they're swords. The two kneeled,

"For the planet?" the leader asked.

"For the planet." The Doctor agreed. They stood and clashed swords, the leader made a swipe at the Doctor who leaped out of the way and looked at Rose. He looked back at the leader and swung his sword, the leader did the same, making the Doctor fall backwards.

"Lookout!" Rose called.

"Oh, yeah, that helps! Wouldn't have thought of that otherwise, thanks!" he yelled back at her. The Doctor attempted to grab the other sword out of the Sycorax's hand, but he poked hard in the stomach with the sword's butt and than he ran, the leader still bring the sword down, each time right where he had been.

"Bit of fresh air?" he called back as he whacked a blue button with his free palm. He ran outside and turned around, there was the Sycorax leader, charging at him, sword raised, ready to strike. He swung again and again, the Doctor blocking each attempt, except for when he got punched in the face. Rose started to run to him,

"Stay back!" he commanded, the leader turned to face Rose, "Invalidate the challenge and he wins the planet." He stood up straight as the leader charged at him again, their swords clashed, scraping against each other as they hooked at the hilts, another series of quick small hits passed between them. Then the leader hit the Doctor in the face with the butt of his sword. The Doctor fell backward and felt nothing beneath his upper back. He turned his head and saw all of London beneath him. He looked back up quickly, just in tome to see the leader cut off his right hand. He followed the plummeting limb and weapon in horror with his eyes, as he then looked at his handless arm.

"You cut my hand off."

"Yah! Sycorax!" the leader cried in triumph.

"And now I know what sort of man I am. I'm lucky. 'Cos quite by chance... I'm still within the first 15 hours of my regeneration cycle. Which means I have just enough residual cellular energy... to do this." He said raising his right arm up so that the leader could see the stump clearly enough too see a hand grow back into its rightful place.

"Witchcraft." The leader hissed.

"Time Lord." The Doctor said coolly. Rose grabbed another broad-sword and tossed it over to him,

"Doctor!"

"Oh, so I'm still the Doctor, then?" he asked her, twirling the sword like a baton.

"No arguments from me!" she called back and they both smiled.

"D'you wanna know the best bit? This new hand... It's a fightin' hand!" he shouted maniacally as _he_ charged at the leader, there was a crazy glint in his eye as he swung his sword again and again, this time advancing while, the leader retreated. The Doctor ripped the sword out of the leader's hand and whacked him hard in the stomach with the butt of the sword so that the leader was now in the position he was in only moments ago, back flat against the ground, hanging slightly off the edge of the spaceship.

"I win." He said simply.

"Than kill me."

"I'll spare your life if you take this champions command: leave this planet, and never return. What d'you say?"

"Yes."

"Swear on the blood of your species!" the Doctor cried adding pressure to the sword.

"I swear." the leader sneered after a pause.

"There we are, then! Thanks for that! Cheers, big fella!" He said cheerily, sticking the sword into the grey earth-like material.

"Bravo!" clapped Harriet Jones.

"That says it all." Rose agreed, running over to him, robe in hand, "Bravo!"

"Yeah! Not bad for a man in his jim-jams!" said he Doctor, sticking his arms into the sleeves, "Very Arthur Dent. Now, there was a nice man. Hold on, what have I got in here?" the Doctor asked pulling out an orangey yellow fruit, "A satsuma. Ah that friend of your mother's, he does like his snacks doesn't he?" he said tossing it in the air, smiling along with Rose, "But doesn't that just sum up Christmas? You go through all those presents and right at the end, tucked away at the bottom, there's one stupid old Satsuma." The leader stood up and wrenched the sword from the ship and ran at the Doctor, "Who wants a satsuma?" he threw the fruit at an orange button and the ground beneath the Sycorax leader gave way as he ran and fell down to meet London on Christmas Day, "No second chances. I'm that sort of a man." They walked back to the TARDIS calmly, knowing no one would dare attack them.

"By the ancient rights of combat, I forbid you to scavenge here for the rest of time. And when you go back to the stars tell others of this planet... when you tell them of its riches, its people, its potential. When you talk of the Earth, than make sure you tell them this: It. Is. Defended!" As the Doctor finished talking, they were transported back to London.

"Where are we?" Rose asked looking around.

"We're just off Bloxom Road. We're just around the corner, we did it!" Mickey yelled jumping up and down.

"Wait a minute... wait a minute..." The Doctor said. They all looked up at the Sycorax's ship as it sailed upward.

"Go on, my son! Oh yeah!" Mickey cried. Rose ran over and jumped on his back,

"Yeah! Don't come back!" she cried along with him.

"It is defended! Ha ha!" Mickey shouted. They all had enormous, silly grins pasted to their faces. Rose jumped of Mickey's back and gave him a hug and than ran over and gave the translating guy a hug. Harriet walked over to the Doctor, and said,

"My Doctor."

"Prime Minister." They both grinned at each other than gave each other a warm hug.

"Absolutely the same man." She said looking at him, than at the sky she asked, "Are there many more out there?"

"Oh, not just Sycorax. Hundreds of species. Thousands of them. And the human race is drawing attention to itself. Everyday, you're sending out probes, messages, and signals. This planet's so noisy. You're getting noticed... more and more. You'd better get used to it." He said.

"Rose!" came Jackie's voice.

"Mum!" cried Rose as she sprinted to Jackie.

"Oh! Talking of trouble…" Rose and her mom grasped each other, it had been a long two days and they were glad it was over.

"Oh, my God! You did it, Rose! Oh!"

"You did it too! It was the tea!" Rose cried over and over again, "Fixed his head!"

"That was all I needed, a cup of tea!"

"I said so!" Jackie cried.

"And look at him!" Rose said smiling happily.

"Is it him though?" was her mom asking her this question now? She had decided that when his hand grew back, it was him, it was still her Doctor, "Is it really the Doctor? Oh, my God! It's the bleeding Prime Minister!"

"Come here you." The Doctor said smiling and all three of them hugged him.

"Aww... Are you better?" Jackie asked releasing him from the hug.

"I am, yeah! Completely and totally, fine, though I did grow another hand!" he said almost laughing at Jackie's expression.

"You did not! Did you? Ah you three are crazy, but did he really grow another hand?"

"Yeah mum, I saw it grow back." Rose said calmly, but then burst out laughing as the Doctor wiggled the fingers on his new hand. The Doctor looked over at Harriet and the man and smiled again. He turned back to his three cheerful friends who were now babbling about what to do for Christmas now that it had passed by.

A sound ricocheted off the surrounding buildings and the four of them turned to look at what had caused it. A brilliant green beam blasted off the top of a building near them and slowly four other buildings all had the lights, they met in the center and shot straight up into space. A beautiful yet terrifying explosion was visible from where they were standing,

"What is that?" Rose asked, "What's happening?" The Doctor looked over at Harriet who had a sad expression on her face.

"That was murder." the Doctor said angrily to her.

"That was defense." She replied, "It's adapted from alien technology. A ship that fell to Earth ten years ago."

"But they were leaving."

"You said yourself, Doctor. They'd go back to the stars and tell others about the Earth. I'm sorry Doctor, you're not here all the time. You come and go. It happened today, Mr Llewellyn, and the major. They were murdered. they died right in front of me while you were sleeping. In which case, we have to defend ourselves." She told him.

"Britain's Golden Age." He spat.

"It comes with a price."

"I gave them the wrong warning. I should have told them to run, as fast as they can, run and hide because the monsters are coming: the human race."

"Those are the people I represent. I did it on their behalf."

"Then I should have stopped you." The Doctor said coldly.

"What does that make you, Doctor? Another alien threat?"

"Don't challenge me Harriet Jones. 'Cos I'm a completely new man. I could bring down your government with a single word."

"You're the most remarkable man I've ever met. But I don't think you're quite capable of that." She said calmly.

"No, you're right. Not a single word. Just six."

"I don't think so."

"Six words."

"Stop it!" she said frustratedly.

"Six." He said staring at her for a few moments longer. He knew that she was starting to fray, to weaken. So he walked over to the translating guy and whispered, "Don't you think she looks tired?" He walked past her to Mickey, Rose, and Jackie and off they walked, back to Rose's apartment.

"What did he say?" Harriet asked.

"Oh, uh... nothing, really."

"What did he say?!" she shouted.

"I-I... nothing! I don't know!"

"Doctor!" she shouted after them. Rose looked back at the deranged Harriet, "Doctor, what did you... what was... what did he say? What did you say, Doctor? Doctor?!" She was slipping down the drain and anyone could see that.


	8. Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Rose, Mickey, and Jackie were running around the apartment, laughing and joking about.

"Christmas dinner!" Jackie yelled from the kitchen, taking a turkey out of the oven, the other two scrambled to get seats at the table. Where was the Doctor? Rose wondered if he had abandoned her again, but she hadn't heard, the familiar sound of the TARDIS taking off. He was still here, but where? As she was thinking, the door closed and there he was in a pinstripe brown suit with a light brown overcoat. She had to admit, he looked attractive… Um... please don't think that, she told her brain.

He had stopped under the doorframe of the living room, completely oblivious to the mistletoe hanging above him and he was grinning from ear to ear. She smiled and ran over to him and tackled him in a hug. She untwined her arms, a bit startled, that their bodies fit together like puzzle pieces when they hugged. She looked up knowingly and he followed her eyes and saw what he had gotten himself into. He leaned in slowly, trying to keep it from turning awkward, but she grabbed him by the jacket and gave him a sound kiss and before he could stop himself, he was snogging her back. When they pulled apart, they both looked dazed and there was an awkward pause, while Mickey and Jackie just looked at them in confusion. Rose just smiled at him, and led him by the hand to the seat next to hers. Everyone dug into their food and in no time at all the crackers were out. The Doctor with a red paper crown on, was holding out the end of a cracker to Rose. She pulled it laughing; he looked inside quickly and said,

"Oh, that's yours..." She took it still smiling at him; she wondered how he had felt about the kiss, well series of kisses. She had butterflies in her stomach, from nervousness, but also from excitement. Was that what real love was like? She pulled out the crown, unfurling it,

"Oh! It's pink! Mum, it should be yours!" she said, not really caring about the color, just happy because it was Christmas and she was with the people she loved. Yes, she loved the Doctor; she had finally admitted it to herself. She looked over at Mickey, he was like a brother to her, besides it would have been awkward if they had continued to be together because he knew that she was in love with the Doctor.

"Pink! Lovely!" Jackie cried enthusiastically, she was glad Rose was happy again.

"Look, it's Harriet Jones!" Rose said pointing at the telly.

"Prime Minister, is it true that you are no longer fit to be in position?" a reporter asked a frazzled Harriet.

"No. Now, can we talk about other things?"

"Is it true that you're not fit for office?" he pressed.

"Look, there is nothing wrong with my health!" she cried, "I don't know where these stories are coming from! And a vote of no confidence... is completely unjustified." The phone rang from it's perch on the coffee table and Jackie got up to answer it.

"Are you going to resign?"

"On today of all days I'm fine. Look at me, I'm fine. I look fine, I _feel _fine!" The Doctor had put on a pair of black, rectangular glasses and was staring at the TV when Jackie came in holding the phone,

"It's Beth. She says go and look outside." the Doctor slipped his glasses back into his coat and he knew what would be out there.

"Why?" Rose asked.

"I dunno, just go outside and look. Come on, shift!" They grabbed their coats and ran down the stairs. It was snowing! Mickey started making a snowball, which he then threw at Rose, who stood smiling up at the sky. She laughed as she stumbled backwards a bit, the Doctor watched them, they were laughing and grinning, Sandra and Jason were dancing and jumping, they were all happy. He looked up himself and there were pieces of the ship burning and falling to Earth, they looked a lot like comets.

"Wow, that's beautiful." Rose said dreamily, as they shot lazily past, "What are they, meteors?"

"It's the spaceship breaking up in the atmosphere. This isn't snow," he said looking over at her, "it's ash."

"Okay, not so beautiful."

"This is a brand new planet Earth. No denying the existence of aliens now, everyone saw it. Everything's new."

"And what about you?" she asked him looking down at the ground, "What are you going to do next?" I'm going to kiss you, he wanted to say, but he thought that probably wouldn't be received well so instead he said,

"Well… Back to the TARDIS... same old life." He said still looking at her.

"What, on... on your own?"

"Why, don't you wanna come?"

"Well yeah."

"Do you, though?"

"Yeah!" she said forcefully. Oh he so wanted to kiss her right now.

"Oh, I just thought… 'cos I changed…"

"Yeah, I... I thought 'cos you changed... you might not want me anymore…"

"Oh, I'd love you to come!" Why was it so hard to have a normal conversation with her?

"Okay!" They were smiling at each other, giant awkward grins.

"You're never gonna stay, are you?" Mickey asked looking at the snow, a frown on his face.

"There's just so much out there. So much to see... I've got to."

"Yeah." He agreed, smiling a bit.

"Well, I reckon you're mad. The pair of you. It's like you go looking for trouble." Jackie said shivering.

"Trouble's just the bits in-between!" the Doctor explained, "It's all waiting out there Jackie. It's brand new to me. All those planets... creatures and horizons... I haven't seen them yet! Not with these eyes... And it is gonna be... fantastic." He smiled looking at Rose and using his old favorite word. He reached out his right hand to Rose, who looked at it and than in his eyes,

"That hand of yours still gives me the creeps." she said unsure whether or not to take it as he waggled his fingers at her. In the end she slipped her fingers into his and it was like before, puzzle pieces put together. They looked up at the dark sky, debris still dancing across the canvas, "So where are we gonna go first?" she asked grabbing his hand in both of hers.

"Um… that way." he said pointing to the right side of the sky, "No, hold on... that way." He said pointing slightly to the left.

"That way?" she asked pointing a bit herself and nodding, "Yeah. That way." She agreed looking at him. They looked up at the sky and walked into the TARDIS.


	9. New New Doctor

**Author's Note:** We're onto New Earth. I had so much fun writing this one, so PLEASE tell me what you think about it.

New Earth

New, New Doctor

Rose had packed a bag this time, the last time when they had finally gone to Barcelona, the planet, and Felspoon, a planet that has mountains that sway in the breeze, Rose had decided that she should have bothered to bring a bag. She didn't want to have to come home that soon again, she wanted to see the universe and ever since that kiss on Christmas, well she wanted to be with the Doctor more.

Her mom was badgering her about forgetting something and realizing to late.

"Do you have everything?" Jackie asked, tugging her daughter's coat closed.

"I've got everything, don't worry." Rose said she wanted to get a move on. Galaxies were lining up!

"Oh, be careful."

"Oh, you'll have to call Mo about that-"

"Oh, never mind Mo." Her mom cut her off, hugging her. The light on top of the TARDIS was starting to glow ever so slightly. Rose looked up hurriedly and said,

"Okay, I'm going now." She called, her mother letting go, "I love you."

"I love you too." her mom said quietly.

"Love you, love you." Rose walked over to Mickey pulled his head towards her and kissed him swiftly on the lips,

"Love you."He said.

"Bye." She ran into the TARDIS and slung her backpack to the ground. The Doctor looked over at her and smiled, she was already smiling, her coat was off her shoulder and she felt an excited shiver run down her spine as he pulled a lever and they dematerialized. She pulled off her jacket and draped it over one of the forked beams supporting the ceiling. She ran to her room on the TARDIS, dropped her bags and sprinted back,

"So where we going?"

"Further than we've ever gone before." And they grinned goofily at each other. It was clear to everyone but Rose that he loved and the exact opposite in her case. They were totally and completely blind.

The TARDIS landed smoothly and Rose stepped out and observed the setting,

"It's the year five billion and twenty three... we're in the galaxy M87... and this... this is New Earth." They looked out across water at the enormous skyscrapers, domes, and spires sticking up off of the island. The city was framed by a grey sky, a few clouds floated here and there. Cars swooped above them swiftly from all different directions, creating spiraling paths into the city. Rose sighed it was amazing,

"It's just…" she couldn't find the words to describe how she was feeling, "That's just… that's..." She started laughing in amazement.

"Not bad. Not bad at all!" The Doctor finished for her smiling.

"That's amazing." she breathed, "Oh, I'll never get used to this. Never. Different ground beneath my feet!" she said jumping up and down, 'Different sky! What's that smell?" The Doctor leaned over and plucked a blade of grass,

"Apple grass." he said grinning again.

"Apple grass!"

"Yeah, yeah!"

"That's beautiful! Oh I love this." she said looking up at him, he wanted to say the exact same thing to her, "Can I just say... traveling with you... I love it."

"Me too." He said. She laughed as he grabbed his hand in hers, "Come on!" he cried, dragging her along with him to a flat grassy area, where he spread out his coat and plopped down on his back and patted the ground next to him. He lay looking at her while she watched the city. It was like a machine, never failing to keep moving in some way. He looked up at the sky,

"So the year five billion... the sun expands, the Earth gets roasted." he watched the clouds trying not to look back at her.

"That was our first date." she said cutely with her tongue poke grin,

"We had chips!" They looked at each other smiling, Rose felt a sudden pang of sadness remembering how so many people had died that day, Jabe, that nice plumber, Cassandra, though she deserved it, the steward, and several others. The Doctor noticed her expression and frowned himself.

"So anyway, planet's gone, all rocks and dust, but the human race lives on, and spread out across the stars. Soon as the Earth burns up... oh, yeah, they get all nostalgic... big revival movement... but find this place!" The Doctor said getting up on his elbows so he could see the city, "Same size as the Earth... same air... same orbit... lovely! Call goes out, the humans move in!"

"What's the city called?" Rose asked, expecting it to be something long that she wouldn't be able to pronounce.

"New New York." he said looking at her.

"Oh, come on."

"It is!" he cried, "It's the city of New New York. Strictly speaking, it's the 15th New York as the original. So that makes it New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York." Rose laughed, looking at him, "What?" he asked.

"You're so different."

"New New Doctor." he said grinning. They laughed as they looked out across the water again.

"Can we go and visit New New York... so good they named it twice?" She asked getting up. He stood up too, slipping his coat on,

"Well... I thought we might go there first." He was looking at a building that stood on it's own on the beach.

"Why, what is it?"

"Some sort of hospital, green moon on the side... that's the universal sign for hospitals. I got this." the Doctor said flipping the psychic paper open. "WARD 26" flashed on and then disappeared, "A message on the psychic paper." "PLEASE COME" appeared, "Someone wants to see me." He tucked it into his bigger on the inside pocket as Rose looked at him teasingly,

"Hmm! And I thought we were just sight seeing." She said taking his arm, "Come on then! Let's go and buy some grapes." They smiled remembering their trip to a planet that had thousands of different grape-like things; they were any shape or color you could imagine. There was even one that looked like the TARDIS.


	10. Hope, Harmony, and Health

Hope, Harmony, and Health

They curled their fingers together and set off running, just how they did the first time Rose met the Doctor. The Doctor stopped outside the doors, a frown on his face; she tugged at his sleeve, trying to get him to move.

"There's probably something I should tell you." He said, looking at the ground and kicking pebbles around, "I don't like hospitals, they just kind of…"

"Creep you out?" Rose finished. He nodded, he was ashamed, he was always trying to impress her, and now, now he was being a wimp. Why couldn't he just push through the doors like he had so many other times? What was Rose going to think of him now? She just grabbed his hand, smiled and pushed open the doors.

As they pushed through the glass doors, Rose immediately felt uneasy, "Bit rich…" she commented looking up and around the white, wooden, and silver areas, "Coming from you."

"I can't help it! I don't like hospitals. They give me the creeps!" He said again. He noticed that there were a lot of women in floor length robes with a white veil concealing their faces from view. This made him even more uncomfortable because if he was going to face somebody, he had to be able to see their face or else, nothing would change, he needed to look them in the eye.

"The Pleasure Gardens will now take visitors holding green or blue identification cards for the next 15 minutes." A speaker said in a monotone voice, ugh, hospitals really gave him the creeps, why, oh, why was the message from a hospital? Why couldn't it have been from a restaurant or a museum? He liked museums, not hospitals, "Visitors are reminded that cuttings from the garden are not permitted." The voice continued.

Rose continued to look around, "Very smart." she admitted, the Doctor just looked straight ahead, not daring to look up, "Not exactly NHS."

"No shop. I like the little shop!" The Doctor said disappointedly. He admitted to himself, the shop had always been a place for him to escape to.

"I thought this far in the future, they'd have cured everything."

"The human race moves on, but so do the viruses. It's an on going war." One of the women walked by without her veil on, she was a cat! Rose couldn't help but stare as she passed. There were cat human things? "Hope, Harmony, and Health." Was being said over and over again in the background.

"They're cats!" Rose whispered, pointing in disbelief.

"Now don't stare... think what you look like to them... all pink and yellow…" he trailed off looking her up and down while nodding. The conversation was starting to get awkward and Rose wasn't looking very happy with what he had said about her, so he found a solution, "That's where I'd put the shop!" he said pointing over her shoulder, "Right there!" and with that he walked toward the elevators.

Rose, was confused as to why he acting this way, why had things gotten so awkward between them? It was better before when they were just friends, when she didn't lo… care for him. Ugh, things were going to be complicated between them for a while, she could just feel it.

"Ward 26, thanks." He said calmly as he entered the sterile lift. The doors started closing, that wasn't right.

"Hold on! Hold on!" Rose cried sprinting towards the doors, but they were shut tight when she reached them.

"Oh, too late... I'm going up."

"It's all right, there's another lift."

"Ward 26… and watch out for the disinfectant." He hoped she had heard him.

"Watch out for what?"

"The disinfectant!"

"The what?"

"The di... oh, you'll find out." The lift doors opened and Rose stepped in, unsure what to do she hesitated,

" Um... Ward 26… thanks." she said slowly. The lift started heading down, odd, she had thought that Ward 26 would've been up not down, but you never knew until you found out. A voice in the lift suddenly said,

"Commence stage one... disinfection." Rose jolted with surprise as a spray of icy liquid rained down. She squealed; this was not what happened in a lift! She started searching the wall for a button to turn it off, but she was having no such luck. The shower stopped and a puff of white engulfed her, she scrunched her face up as tightly as possible as to keep anything from getting in her mouth… again. Then a hot gust of air, like a giant blow-dryer, filled the tiny compartment and she squealed again, how was this normal? At least now she wouldn't be wet, so she combed her hair a bit with her fingers and calmed down, this bit actually wasn't that bad. She moved her body around trying get the air everywhere on her. When the doors opened, she was perfectly dry and looked just as she had before.


	11. The Last Human

The Last Human

She walked out still fiddling with her hair into what looked like a sewer or a dungeon.

"The Human child is clean." A voice said, she looked to her lest and there was something that looked like a man dressed in more or less what Doctor's from her time wore. He looked completely normal except for the multiple tattoo marks all over his face and arms.

"Um... I'm looking for Ward 26..." She said hoping he knew the way.

"This way, Rose Tyler." How the hell did he know her name? She had never seen him before in her life and yet he seemed to know exactly who she was. And with that he ran off, hunching slightly over.

She didn't feel safe so Rose picked up a metal pole from the ground and started walking cautiously after "Gollum". As she approached the door he had disappeared through, Rose saw what looked like and old movie projector, music, laughter, and chatter, filled the air along with the steady dripping from the ceiling, this couldn't be Ward 26, if it was, she would've found the Doctor immediately.

The film was of a party, a rather posh one at that, and there was one lady in a silvery dress with blonde curly that hair that had such a familiar voice, but who was it? Than it clicked,

"What a minute... that's…" she whipped around and there she was, just the same as ever, the same ridiculous trampoline of lipstick and skin,

"Peekaboo!" she said snootily.

"Don't you come anywhere near me, Cassandra!" Rose said pointing the pole at the "last pure blood human" as she backed toward the door.

"Why? What do you think I'm going to do? Flap you to death?" Cassandra asked her annoyed that she had to lower herself to this level.

"Yeah, but... what about Gollum." Rose gestured, he was seriously creeping her out.

"Oh... that's just Chip. He's my pet."

"I worship the mistress!" he proclaimed proudly, he hadn't blinked the entire time, what was wrong with him, Rose wondered.

"Moisturize me, moisturize me..." Cassandra muttered, "He's not even a proper life form. He's a force-grown clone. I modelled him on my favorite pattern. But he's so faithful. Chip sees to my physical needs."

"I hope that means food." Rose thought of the other ways he could "see to her physical needs" and cringed. Then she asked the big question, "How come you're still alive?"

"After you murdered me."

"That was your own fault."

"The brain of my mistress survived." he looked over to her right and Rose followed his eyes to a clear tube with wires sticking out everywhere that was filled with a bubbling liquid, and stuck right in the middle of it all was a rather old, pink, brain, "And her pretty blue eyes were salvaged from the bin." Chip said leering at Cassandra. Rose couldn't believe the flattered expression on Cassandra's fa… lips and eyes?

"What about the skin? I saw it, you…" Rose laughed, "You got ripped apart."

"That piece of skin was taken from the front of my body. This piece is the back."

"Right, so you're talking out of your a–" Rose said on the verge of laughter, a huge smile that could not be suppressed was plastered on her face.

"Ask not." Cassandra cut in glaring.

"The mistress was lucky to survive. Chip secreted milady into the hospital."

"So they don't know you're here?" the smile was gone from her face in an instant.

"Chip steals medicine. Helps milady. Soothes her. Strokes her..."

"You can stop right there, Chip." And the smile was back at the thought of somebody stroking Cassandra's bum.

"But I'm so alone, hidden down here... the last human in existence..." Cassandra put on a sad face.

"Oh, don't start that again... they've called this planet New Earth."

"A vegetable patch." Cassandra muttered

"And there's millions of humans out there... millions of them."

"Mutant stock!"

"They evolved Cassandra. They just evolved, like they should." Rose was having fun proving Cassandra wrong, "You stayed still. You got yourself all pickled and preserved, and what good did it do ya?"

"Oh, I remember that night." Cassandra said wistfully, "Drinks for the Ambassador of Thrace. That was the last time anyone told me I was beautiful. After that it all became... such hard work." She was glaring at Rose now, there wasn't only hatred in her eyes, there was something else, Rose thought, it had to be a plan.

"Well, you've got a knack for survival... I'll give you that."

"But I've not been idle Rose... tucked away, underneath this hospital... I've been listening. The Sisters are hiding something."

"What d'you mean?"

"Oh... these cats have secrets." Cassandra whispered, "Hush, let me whisper. Come close."

"You must be joking if you think I'm coming anywhere near you!" Rose said backing up quickly towards the door, but as she got to the doorway, her hands were locked in some sort of light.

"Chip! Activate the psychograft!"

"I can't move! Cassandra let me go!" she cried. Her mind was racing; idea after idea, but nothing came to her that would actually work. Chip pulled a lever and bars of a blue light shot down, encircling her in a prison made out of in penetrable energy, "What are you doing?"

"The lady's moving on. It's goodbye trampoline and hello Blondie!" Cassandra was looking upward smiling, waiting for something to happen, she disappeared into a pink cloud and zipped toward Rose. Chip turned of the machine as she collapsed to the floor, dropping the metal rod with a clang.

Rose was freaking out! She couldn't control her body any more and Cassandra seemed to be inside her, in fact she was squishing Rose! She felt a sharp sting of pain as she was compressed slowly. She heard her own voice say,

"Moisturize me…" She saw Chip running to get the bottle filled with red acid; it would kill her if she so much as touched a drop! Surely Cassandra had to know that, or had she been a trampoline to long to remember?

"How bizarre… arms… fingers… hair! Oh, let me see! Let me see!" She felt her body being jerked up as Cassandra took her to stand in front of a reflective disk, "Oh my God. I'm a chav!" she cried. No. I. Am. Not! Rose wanted to scream in her ear, "Look at me! From class to brass! Although… Oh... curves…" Oh no you don't! Don't you dare! Rose said to herself as Cassandra unzipped her sweatshirt and ran her hands over Rose's waist and hips, "Oh, baby…" Cassandra had started bobbing up and down to get a feel of Rose's bust, she noticed that Chip was doing exactly the same thing. He really was an idiot, "It's like living inside a bouncy castle!" Cassandra commented happily. Rose just sighed, she was going to have to get used to this otherwise it would be a long and painful experience. How could she get Cassandra out though? The Doctor would know what to do. If she ever got to Ward 26.

"The mistress is beautiful!" Chip said dotingly.

"Absolutement!" Oh, so one second she was a chav and the next she was gorgeous? That was a fast change of heart. Her head turned to look back at the metal frame that had held Cassandra's old skin, "Oh, but look…" she said disappointedly, seeing that the skin had vanished. Now where was Cassandra going to go?

"Oh… The brain lead expired... My old mistress is gone." Chip realized sounding thoroughly depressed.

"But safe and sound in here." Cassandra said taping her temple.

"But what of the Rose child's mind?"

"Oh… tucked away… I can just about access the surface memory." Now Cassandra was invading her memories? Well that's nice, "She's… God… She's with the Doctor… a man… he's the Doctor… The same Doctor with a new face! Oh, that hypocrite! I must get the name of his surgeon." And Cassandra was pulling her back to the disk, "I could do with a little work." Cassandra fiddled with her hair. And now I'm back to being not good enough… Rose thought, "Although… a nice rear bumper. Hmm!" Cassandra was now feeling her bum and if that wasn't enough Rose's phone started ringing, hmm just my luck! Rose sighed.

"Oh… it seems to be ringing… is it meant to ring?" Cassandra asked pulling out the phone looking at it with a confused expression.

"A primitive communications device."

"Rose, where are you?" came the Doctor's voice, it wasn't until she heard his voice did Rose realize how alone she was down here, his voice was a comfort because it held the hope of getting her body back and finding her best friend again.

"How does she speak?" Cassandra whispered to Chip as she pressed the small pink mobile to her ear.

"Old Earth Cockney."

"Um… wotcha?" Cassandra said slowly. That is _not_ how I talk Rose yelled to herself, there was no way that Cassandra could hear her and even if she could she wouldn't listen.

"Where've you been? How long does it take to get to Ward 26?" Rose could tell the Doctor was worried.

"I'm on my way, governor." Could he really not tell that it wasn't her thoughts forming those words? Usually he could, "I shall proceed up the Apples and Pears." What was Cassandra saying? It didn't make any sense at all.

"You'll never guess. I'm with the Face of Boe! Remember him?" The Doctor said completely oblivious to the voice change and the odd babble of speech that was reaching him. Cassandra laughed through gritted teeth,

"Course I do… that big old… boat… race…" What was she saying? The Face of Boe was _not_ a boat race! How had Cassandra gotten that?

"I'd better go. See you in a minute." She heard the receiver click back into place and there was a long annoying sound being emitted from the phone. Press the red button already Rose wanted to shout at Cassandra. Cassandra slowly figured out which button to press and slid the phone into her back pocket again. She had a plan, a plan that wouldn't fail: seduce the Doctor.


	12. The Domino Effect

A Domino Effect

Cassandra unbuttoned the purple and blue shirt just so that some cleavage was showing. In her experience a little cleavage never hurt anyone, or at least not until today… She leaned forward and flipped her hair back, tousling it up a bit to give it a bit of a wind swept look to it. She had explained her plan to Chip, he seemed eager but unsure, and Rose, oh well she had been still for a bit now, her mind hadn't been jostling hers quite as much.

"This Doctor man is dangerous."

"Dangerous and clever. I might need a mind like his." Cassandra reminded him, "The Sisterhood is up to something. Remember that old Earth saying? Never trust a nun. Never trust a nurse. And _never_ trust a cat. Perfume?" She asked as Chip pulled the vial out of his pocket. She stuck it down her cleavage, making sure it wasn't very visible in the mirror and she strode off to the elevator.

"Ward 26 and make it quick. I don't have all day." She snapped, Rose was waking up again or else was just annoyed.

"Commence stage one... disinfection." A voice said again and instead of squealing, Rose stood proudly under the spray and didn't flinch when the white cloud surrounded her, and was positively bored when the hot air blew on her, thanks to Cassandra Rose couldn't do anything at all. She would have squealed still and flinched and been a bit nervous when the giant blow-dryer turned on. She couldn't do anything normal for her at all.

Cassandra walked in, rolling her shoulders a bit, she watched the Doctor, that same Doctor sauntering from patient to patient and examining formulas when he turned to face her. She smiled trying to act like Rose, but also a bit seductively.

"There you are! Come look at this patient!" he said grabbing her by the arm to look at a man whose skin was a glowing red color with black around his eyes, "Marconi's Disease. Should take years to recover. Two days. I've never seen anything like it... they've invented a cell-washing cascade... it's amazing! Their medical science is _way_ advanced. And this one!" he said turning on his heel and walking to the opposite side of the room to a man who was completely powder white, "Pallidome Pancrosis. Kills you in ten minutes, and he's fine!" he waved cheerily at him, not noticing anything wrong about Rose, "I need to find a terminal. I've got to see how they do this."

They walked out of the Ward and he continued talking, completely oblivious to the fact that most of Rose's cleavage was showing and that she kept giving him sexy smiles, "Because if they've got the best medicine in the world… then why's it such a secret?"

"I can't Adam and Eve it." Cassandra said. Rose winced at that, the Doctor was sure to something was wrong now, when had she ever said anything like that at all?

"What's... what's with the voice?" he stammered.

"Oh, I dunno… just larking about New Earth... New me…" she said looking him up and down.

"Well I can talk. New New Doctor." He smiled either about the fact that he was just being cheerful or he had noticed that most of the buttons on her shirt were undone.

"Mmm, aren't you just…" with that Cassandra grabbed his head and ground her lips on his, running her fingers through his hair and pressing her body up against his, Rose felt faint, she had wanted to do that so many times and than Cassandra had to go and do it before her.

Cassandra looked up at the dazed Doctor and said breathlessly,

"T... terminal's this way." She said pointing her finger to her left while staring into his eyes.

"Yep... still got it..." The Doctor said in a high-pitched voice as he smoothed down his hair and followed her. All his mind could do at the moment was fizz over with shock and happiness and the occasional sigh. Once they reached the terminal, he was his normal self again and Rose had woken up.

"Nope… nothing odd… surgery… post-op… nano dentistry… no sign of a shop... they should have a shop."

"No, it's missing something else." Cassandra muttered coming around to look at the screen, "When I was downstairs, those Nurse/Cat/Nuns were talking about Intensive Care. Where is it?"

"You're right, well done." The Doctor was sure something was wrong now.

"Why would they hide a whole department? It's gotta be there somewhere." Rose noticed that the Doctor had pulled out the sonic and she knew something unexpected was going to happen, "Search the sub-frame." Cassandra commanded, since when did Rose Tyler command?

"What if the sub-frame's locked?" the Doctor asked, if it had really been Rose talking she wouldn't have known.

"Try the installation protocol..." She replied simply, he nodded, confirming his suspicions. Something was controlling Rose. He pressed the sonic to the given area,

"Yeah, course. Sorry. Hold on." As he released the button a loud whooshing noise as the wall they were just leaning on dropped down into the floor. They stumbled back a bit and as the corridor was revealed, Cassandra smiled in a rather gruesome way while the Doctor looked surprised for a second, than looked at Rose out of the corner of his eye. He saw that horrifying smile and saw her strut forward. That was not his Rose Tyler. Wait… Did he just call her _his_? Yeah he cared about her but did he lo… care _for_ her? Ye… He wasn't sure,

"Intensive Care… Well it looks intensive." He hurried to catch up with Rose even if it wasn't actually her. Everything was dank and smelled like mildew. The floors were grey and the walls seemed to have once been shiny, white bricks, but they were now grey, both from age and gathering dust. It looked… well… it looked abandoned. Rose seemed to know where she was going as she jogged down the stairs, the Doctor looked about the "department" as he went, he decided it was more of a laboratory.

They ran down set after set of stairs until they came to a floor with glowing green doors surrounded by black metal. The two off them stopped and leaned against the railing, they could see the green doors going up and down as far as they could see. Yup this had to be a laboratory, the Doctor concluded. He continued to walk down the row of doors until he stopped in front of one at random and sonic-ed the door open.

Inside the compartment, bathed in a sickly green light was a man completely covered in boils, blisters, cuts, and odd colored splotches. You could practically see all the diseases crawling on him.

"That's disgusting." Rose said. Rose would never say that if it was actually her, she would have been sad and worried about the poor life form that was being used as some sort of guinea pig, "What's wrong with him?"

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." The Doctor said he had a stricken look on his face, what was wrong was this man was absolute cruelty. How somebody could do this to another human being was just… He closed the door slowly. His eyes were starting to water a bit and he was the Doctor! He never cried. He locked it again and opened the next one over. With each person he saw the sorrow and anger inside him grew,

"What disease is that?" Rose asked unsympathetically.

"All of them." He said flatly, staring sadly at a girl who would have been very pretty if it weren't for the pustules, blisters, dark, popping veins, and slightly cracked skin, "Every single disease in the galaxy, they've been infected with everything."

"What about us?" Rose would never worry about herself before making sure that everyone else was ok, "Are we safe?"

"The air's sterile. Just don't touch them." He clenched his fists on the railing, why on Earth were humans the test subjects. He looked around at all the cells and was disgusted.

"How many patients are there?" Rose asked uncaringly.

"They're not patients."

"But they're sick."

"They were born sick. They're meant to be sick. They exist to be sick. Lab rats. No wonder the Sisters have got a cure for everything." he spat, "They've built the ultimate research laboratory. A Human farm."

"Why don't they just die?"

"Plague carriers. The last to go."

"It's for the greater cause." Said Novice Hame stepping out from the shadows and walking towards them, her hands clasped.

"Novice Hame. When you took your vows, did you agree to this?" he asked daggers in his eyes.

"The Sisterhood Has sworn to help." She replied calmly.

"What, by killing?" he shouted.

"But they're not real people. They're specially grown. They have no proper existence."

"What's the turn over? Hmm?" he said walking toward her, a livid gleam had appeared in his eyes, "Thousand a day? Thousand the next? Thousand the next? How many thousands? For how many years? How many?" he was practically screaming.

"Mankind needed us. They came to this planet with _so_ many illnesses. We couldn't cope. We did try. We tried everything. We tried using clone meat and bio cattle... but the results were too slow. So the Sisterhood grew it's own flesh. That's all they are. Flesh." She had a smile on her face.

"These people are alive."

"But think of all those humans out there... healthy... and happy, because of us!"

"If they live because of this, then life is worthless." He spat.

"But who are you to decide that?"

"I'm the Doctor. And if you don't like it... if you want to take it to a higher authority, there isn't one. It stops with me!"

"Just to confirm..." Rose piped up, "None of the Humans in the city actually know about this?"

"We thought it best not..."

"Hold on. I can understand the bodies. I can understand your vows. But one thing I can't understand… What have you done to Rose?" Novice Hame looked completely startled by this and Rose looked a bit taken a back herself. Thank you! Rose cried happily, the Doctor had finally figured out something was wrong.

"I don't know what you mean." Novice Hame stammered truthfully.

"And I'm being very, very calm. You wanna beware of that… very, very calm. And the only reason I'm being so very, very calm is that the brain is a delicate thing. Whatever you've done to Rose's head, I want it reversed!" So the Doctor did care about her… but which way? She couldn't tell.

"We haven't done anything."

"I'm perfectly fine." Rose said smiling, trying to reassure him.

"These people are dying, and Rose would care."

"Oh, all right, clever clogs." She turned him to face her, she started pulling out his tie and pulling it tighter around his neck, "Smarty pants… Lady killer…"

"What's happened to you?"

"I knew something was going on in this hospital, but I needed this body and your mind to find it out."

"Who are you?" he had a quizzical look on his face.

"The Last Human." She whispered.

"Cassandra?"

"Wake up and smell the perfume." She said pulling the vial from her cleavage and squirting it under his nose. His eyes closed immediately and he keeled over, hitting his head against the wall.

"You've hurt him!" Novice Hame cried crouching down next to him. What have you done, you idiot! Rose yelled, trying to kick Cassandra mentally as she stuck the jar back into its original position, "I don't understand... I'll have to fetch Matron!"

"You do that 'cause I want to see her! Now, run along! Sound the alarm!" With that Cassandra walked over to a gasket and pulled a wire, red light beeped on and off while sirens sounded. She smiled maliciously as she crossed her arms. Realizing that she had to do something to punish the Doctor for blowing her up, she quickly dragged him into an open cell and locked the door. She called Chip to came and join her in watching, the famous, goodly Doctor die, once and for all. She waited peering into his cell until he woke up. She saw him look around, his mouth was open a slight bit, but not from surprise.

"Let me out!" he cried, "Let me out!"

"Aren't you lucky there was a spare?" she asked tauntingly, sticking her face close to the glass, "Standing room only."

"You've stolen Rose's body." He couldn't seem to get past that fact.

"Over the years, I've thought of a thousand ways to kill you, Doctor." Cassandra said pressing her right hand against the green glass, "And now, that's exactly what I've got. One thousand diseases. They pump the patients with a top-up every ten minutes. You've got about… three minutes left." She said checking her watch, "Enjoy."

"Just let Rose go, Cassandra."

"I will! As soon as I find someone younger and… less common… then I'll junk her with the waste. Now hushaby! It's show time."

"Anything we can do to help?" Sister Jatt asked, walking toward her with Matron Casp.

"Straight to the point, Whiskers... I want money."

"The Sisterhood is a charity. We don't _give_ money, we only... accept." Matron Casp told her.

"The humans across the water pay you a fortune. And that's exactly what I need. A one-off payment. That's all I want… oh, and perhaps a yacht. In return for which, I will tell the City nothing of your institutional murder. Is that a deal?" Cassandra asked. She was using blackmail, just like last time.

"I'm afraid not." Matron Casp declined smiling.

"I'd _really_ advise you to think about this."

"There's no need. I have to decline."

"I'll tell them! And you've no way of stopping me!" Matron Casp was really getting under Cassandra's skin, it was hard for Rose not to laugh as she watched Cassandra try to manipulate the Matron, "You're not exactly Nuns with Guns... you're not even armed."

"Who needs arms when we have claws!" the Matron cried manically as she held up her hand and silver claws shot through the white fabric of her gloves.

"Well nice try." Cassandra said to herself, "Chip? Plan B!" she called almost happily. There was definitely something wrong with her Rose thought as she tried to tell her body to go let the Doctor out, nothing happened.

Matron Casp's smile faded as Chip pulled a lever and the glowing doors swung open. Cassandra smiled as she saw her plan go into action perfectly. The plague carriers, the flesh, were walking toward the two Nuns, who were shuffling backwards.

The Doctor climbed out of his cell yelling at her,

"What've you done!"

"Gave the system a shot of adrenaline, just to wake 'em up." She said a malicious note played in her voice, "See ya!" and with that she and Chip ran as fast as they could, not daring to look behind them.

"Don't touch them!" the Doctor called out, Rose didn't know if it was to Cassandra or if it was to Matron Casp and Sister Jatt, "What ever you do, don't touch!" he ran after her and as soon as he caught up to Cassandra they heard an explosion. A spark went off at each door one by one, it was a domino effect. Cassandra was screaming loudly as she ran, trying not to get burned by the flares of electricity. They ran as fast as they could to the stairs where they paused for a minute as they watched the doors open, Cassandra had lost the grin on her face a long time ago, but now her plan was ruined.

"Oh, my God…" Cassandra whispered.

"What the hell have you done?" he asked looking at her with a terrified expression.

"It wasn't me!"

"One touch and you get every disease in the world, and I want that body safe, Cassandra!' Wait, what? The Doctor wanted her safe, well she supposed that was to expected, but was there another meaning to it? "We've gotta go down!" he cried as flesh approached them from either side.

"But there;s thousands of them!"

"Run!" he told her. The image of his previous regeneration taking her hand and saying that same word to her popped into Rose's mind. She squealed as she ran, "Down! Down! Go down!" As they ran the PA suddenly said,

"This building is under quarantine. Repeat... this building is under quarantine. No one may leave the premises. Repeat... no one may leave the premises." Oh well that's great the Doctor thought. No way of getting in or out now. They kept running, down more and more flights of stairs. The Doctor didn't know how much longer Rose's body would last with Cassandra wearing it out. He hoped that she was still safe in her head, but that was pretty unlikely because all of the pressure Cassandra's mind would have put in her head would have slowly killed Rose off by now. Oh he hoped so desperately that she was still alive.

"Keep going! Go down!" he shouted one last time.


	13. Revealed Secrets

Revealed Secrets

Cassandra flung the door to the Basement open as she bolted to the elevators.

"No, the lifts have closed down. That's the quarantine, nothing's moving!" he explained.

"This way!" she ran in the opposite direction, back the way they had come. As soon as the Doctor had passed the doorway they had entered from, flesh emerged, walking unstably, like they were zombies. Chip whimpered as he did a little dance of fright.

"Someone will touch him!" the Doctor cried, concerned for everyone's safety.

"Oh, leave him! He's just a clone thing, he's only got a half-life... come on!" she cried grabbing his sleeve and tugged trying to get him to come. Well she hasn't changed much since last time, the Doctor thought.

"My mistress!" Chip cried pitifully as Cassandra ran off without looking back. The Doctor turned back to him,

"I'm sorry, I can't let her escape!" he cried as he ran after her.

"My mistress!" Chip cried one last time, and the Doctor was gone from that part of the Basement. He closed the door behind him as Cassandra ran over to another and yanked it open, only to be greeted by the groping hands of flesh. She turned back to the Doctor, parting the plastic curtains in front of the door,

"We're trapped! What are we going to do?" she cried.

"Well, for starters, you are going to leave that body." He had his sonic in hand and motioned to her favorite machine, "That psychograft is banned on every civilized planet! You're compressing Rose to death." he cried, there was a worried tone in his voice, why couldn't he hide it? It didn't feel like she was being compressed to death, if anything it felt like she was compressing Cassandra more than Cassandra was compressing her.

"But I've got nowhere to go." Cassandra said in an annoyed tone, "My original skin's _dead_!" she whipping back to face him.

"Not my problem. You can float as atoms in the air. Now, get out." Does he really care that much about me? Rose asked knowing that she wouldn't get an answer, but she was surprised when she heard Cassandra say sarcastically, Of course he doesn't, darling. Now stop shouting at me. Love you too. Cassandra had heard all she had said? Rose was getting scared now.

The Doctor was pointing the sonic at her in a very threatening way, 'Give her back to me.'

"You asked for it." Cassandra said as she breathed in deeply and blew out a pink cloud. Rose stumbled as Cassandra left her body. The Doctor turned away from her as he doubled over.

"Blimey, my head…" she said realizing that it had started to hurt a bit. She looked around, noticing Cassandra was nowhere to be found, "Where'd she go?" she asked the Doctor who until than had had his back to her.

"Oh, my." He said, his hands were floating about his shoulders as he said this, "This is... different." Rose realized this is how she had always expected the Doctor to act if he got drunk, stumbling a bit, making his words smoothly, not as quick and chirpy as he usually was, but he wasn't drunk. Cassandra must be in him.

"Cassandra?" she asked.

"Goodness me, I'm a man." she exclaimed excitedly, "Yum. So many parts! And hardly used…" she grinned cheekily. Rose just stood there and watched Cassandra make a fool of the Doctor because she knew there was nothing she could do to stop Cassandra, "Ah… ah! Two hearts! Oh, baby, I'm beating out a samba." She said as she jerked his torso a bit.

"Get out of him." Rose said flatly. Yes, the Doctor said. Wait no! He couldn't let Cassandra go back into Rose or else she could easily die. Cassandra ignored Rose and continued to check out her new body.

"Ooh, he's slim…" Cassandra noticed, running a hand down his body, "And a little bit foxy…" she said waggling his eyebrows at Rose, "You've thought so too. I've been inside your head..." Rose looked to the side, blushing a bit, "You've been looking..." she said walking toward her, "You like it." Rose was really blushing now and a small smile had crept onto her lips, it was true and she couldn't help the blood rushing to her face. Oh, oh! The Doctor thought, she likes me! She loves me! That's why Christmas and everything else had been so awkward… his hearts fluttered. Well at least his body still reacted to his emotions.

Just than flesh burst into the room and Cassandra whipped around to face them.

"What do we do? What would he do? The Doctor... what the hell would he do?" she cried frantically. Rose spun around looking for an exit,

"Ladder… We've gotta get up." She said moving towards the metal rungs only to be shoved roughly out of the way by Cassandra. Hey! The Doctor thought. What was that for?

"Out of the way Blondie." She cried rudely. Thanks Cassandra, he muttered. You're welcome Sweetheart, a voice trilled. Oh no... he thought.


	14. Swapping

Swapping

They pulled themselves up the ladder as quickly as possible, the flesh always close behind.

"If you get out of the Doctor's body, he can think of something." she cried, trying not to look down. They had been climbing for a while now. It was hard to see where the Basement was now. But the thing was if she looked up, than she was staring at his butt. Which was terribly awkward for her and probably the Doctor.

"Yap, yap, yap... Cassandra said not listening to anything Rose had said, "God, it was tedious inside your head." she said looking down at her, Hormone City."

"We're gonna die if-" someone grabbed her foot making her squeal. It was Matron Casp, "Get off!" she cried looking down.

"All our good work! All that healing!" she hissed as Cassandra rolled the Doctor's eyes, "The good name of the Sisterhood... you have destroyed everything!" she pulled Rose's foot harder, making her other foot slip off it's rung so that she was only attached to the ladder by her slipping sweaty hands. No, no, no, no, no. This couldn't happen she couldn't let go! The Doctor was going frantic as he watched her grasp the rung as best as she could, still being tugged down.

"Go and play with a ball of string." Wow, there was one similarity between him and Cassandra, they were both rude and not ginger, thought Rose.

"Everywhere… disease! This is the Human World. Sickness!" As Rose watched she saw the Matron's face take on a pained expression as it slowly became red, dried out, and covered with pustules and blisters. Rose watched as she fell down, down, down, screaming, until she was just a tiny speck. The flesh continued to climb towards them, never stopping for a break.

"Move!" she cried pushing one of Cassandra's feet up as the PA turned on again, 'Maximum quarantine. Divert all shuttles." She squealed as the Doctor's body scurried up the ladder and once she had reached the top and found a bronze door with no handle, all she could think to do was bang her hand against it.

"Now what do we do?" she asked looking down at Rose.

"Use the sonic screwdriver." The Doctor's nose wrinkled a bit as Cassandra took out the sonic holding it haphazardly with only her fingertips,

"You mean this thing?" she asked waving it around a bit.

"Yes, I mean that thing."

"Well I don't know how… that Doctor's hidden away all his thoughts." she complained. Ha, beat that Cassandra, he shouted with glee. Oh, just you wait, Doctor, her voice hissed.

"Cassandra, go back into me... the Doctor can open it." Cassandra looked dubious at the thought, "Do it!" Rose cried impatiently.

"Hold on tight." She said with annoyance. The Doctor's body twisted as Cassandra's mind left his and flowed into Rose making her hang by her hands again.

"Oh... oh, chavtastic, again." Cassandra sighed regaining her foothold, "Open it!" she cried up to the Doctor.

"Not 'til you get out of her!" he said holding onto the ladder with one hand and leaning out a bit.

"We need the Doctor!" This is going to be difficult Rose concluded.

"_I order you to leave her!_" he yelled at Cassandra. Yup, definitely not going to be easy. She felt Cassandra leave her head again, making her sway a bit and the Doctor twist again.

"No mater how difficult the situation is, there is no need to shout." Cassandra said blatantly.

"Cassandra, get out of him!" she spat through her teeth.

"But if I go into you, he simply refuses... he's so rude!" she cried shaking her head.

"I don't care." Rose said in a desperate voice, "Just do something." Cassandra was looking down at the flesh and making a funny face,

"Oh, I'm so gonna regret this..." she said bracing herself for what was about to come. Cassandra flew out of the Doctor passed Rose and into the closest flesh, a woman with long matted brown hair and the same gross bits all over her skin.

"Oh sweet Lord... I look disgusting!" she cried in horror as the Doctor got to work with his sonic. The doors slid open and he leaped through and Rose hurried leap through herself,

"Nice to have you back." He said to Rose with that smile. The smile that made her stomach twist in excitement.

"Oh no you don't..." Cassandra stated stoutly as she flew into Rose, making her scream and fall down. The Doctor sonic-ed the door shut and turned to her in frustration.

"That was your last warning, Cassandra!" he shouted, but she didn't look at him, she just sat sadly against the wall, not even trying to make a come back.

"Inside her head… they're so alone… they keep reaching out, just to hold us… all their lives and they've never been touched." The Doctor reached out a hand to her and she came back to reality she looked up at him quickly, unsure if she should trust him or not. Reluctantly, she slid her hand into his and pulled herself up. He stared into her eyes for a second and Rose felt something nudge her that wasn't Cassandra, it was the Doctor.

A banging at the door behind them caused him to look away, and lead Cassandra by the hand to a door. He pulled out the sonic and they strolled into Ward 26. Suddenly Frau Clovis came rushing at them, wielding a three-legged stool.

"We're safe! We're safe! We're safe. We're clean! We're clean! Look, look..." Frau Clovis still held the stool, but at least now she wasn't threatening to bash them over the head with it now.

"Show me your skin."

"Look! Clean, look… if we'd been touched, we'd be dead." The Doctor said as he and Cassandra flourished their arms and hands. Frau Clovis nodded as she lowered the stool. They were allowed to come closer, "So how's it going up here? What's the status?"

"There's nothing but silence from the other Wards. I think we're the only ones left. But I've been trying to override the quarantine." She said walking passed them to the floor to ceiling window, "If I can trip a signal over to New New York, they can send a private executive squad." She clearly thought her idea was completely brilliant.

"You can't do that. If they forced entry, they would break the quarantine."

"I am _not_ dying in _here_." She sounded aggravated.

"We can't let a single particle of disease get out... There are ten million people in that City, they'd all be at risk! Now turn that off!" he shouted the last bit, he clearly wasn't having the best day at the moment. His head was pounding from having Cassandra flit in and out of his head.

"Not if it gets me out." she whispered angrily.

"All right, fine. So I have to stop you lot as well. Suits me. Rose. Novice Hame. Everyone! Excuse me your grace... get me all the intravenous solutions for every single disease! Move it!" he called to everyone, who had started grabbing as many bags of the brightly colored fluids as they could hold. He sonic-ed a machine and grabbed the part he needed and then tied a piece of rope around himself, which he and Cassandra then hung on the rope. How come she always got to be more intimate with him when something was inside her Rose wanted to know. First it had been Bad Wolf, and now it was Cassandra.

"How's that? Will that do?"

"I don't know!" Cassandra answered hurriedly. She had just heard Rose's last thought and couldn't believe how blind the two of them were, "Will it do for what?" she asked a frown forming on her face. He walked over to the lift and the metal doors slid open as he pressed his sonic screwdriver.

"The lifts aren't working." Cassandra cried. He stuck his head in and looked up and down.

"Not moving. Different thing." he said walking back past her, "Here we go." He placed his screwdriver carefully in between his teeth as sprinted and then jumped, grabbing the lift's cable and wrapping his legs around it, so that he wouldn't slip.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Cassandra cried, and if he didn't know her better he would have said she was worried about him.

"I'm going down!" he said though the screwdriver made it difficult to say. He pulled the circular bit of metal onto the cable and sonic-ed it shut. Cassandra sighed and he looked back at her, "Come on!"

"Not in a million years." She replied flatly.

"I need another pair of hands. What do you think? If you're so desperate to stay alive… Why don't you live a little?" he asked raising his eyebrows. The flesh had entered the hallway,

"Seal the door!" Frau Clovis said before Cassandra could even think to get back inside the Ward. She looked at the flesh and than again at the Doctor, she squealed as ran and jumped onto the Doctor and clung to him as she said,

"You're completely mad!" Rose was so annoyed that Cassandra was in her right than, she would have rather been herself at the moment than a shallow piece of lipstick and skin, "I can see why she likes you." Again Cassandra had said that Rose liked him and he got a pleasant tingle down his spine, he wished it was actually Rose who had her limbs wrapped around him. Rose blushed mentally and Cassandra gave a triumphant, ha!

"Going down!" he said grinning, pressing a button that made them shoot down the cable, screaming, slowing down slightly when the friction got to be so much that sparks started spraying. They came to a smooth stop on top of the lift and Cassandra let go of the Doctor quickly and adjusted her shirt.

"Well, that's one way to lose weight."

"Now, listen... when I say so, take hold of that lever." he said motioning to the big handle sticking out of the lift's roof. Cassandra took a step toward him saying,

"There's still a quarantine down there, we can't-"

"Hold that lever!" he shouted at her. She crouched down next to lever and held it with both hands, "I'm cooking up a cocktail. I know a bit of medicine myself." He tossed a bag of liquid up in the air and caught it deftly, than he ripped a hole in the side of it and sprayed the contents of the plastic into a big circular basin. He continued this process until every single last bag was empty, ripping open a side a spraying it into the container. Cassandra was moving about a grimace on her face, trying not to get splashed, "Now, that lever's going to resist." he told her, "So keep it in position." She grabbed it again with both hands, "Hold on to it with everything you've got!"

"What about you?" she asked incredulously.

"I've got an appointment. The Doctor is in." he said with a smile, dropping into the empty lift.


	15. Pass it on

Pass it on

With that the Doctor dropped into empty sterile lift raised his sonic and pointed it at the doors. As they slid open, he could hoards of flesh gathered in the main lobby, sitting glumly around, doing nothing. He took pity on them. They were lonely, just like him. They needed people to love them, people to be their friends.

When they noticed he was simply standing in the open lift, unafraid, they hobbled toward him, hoping he would understand.

"I'm in here! Come on!" he shouted. They were now eagerly approaching.

"Don't tell them!" Cassandra hissed, clutching the lever tightly.

"Pull that lever!" he commanded and she adjusted her grip, grabbing it with both of her hands instead of one, "Come and get me, come on! I'm in here, come on!" They wanted him to touch their hands. They had that look of finally coming out of solitude, that hope that drifted in their eyes.

'Commence stage one disinfection.' The PA stated in as calm a voice as ever.

"Hurry up, come on!" The spray rained down on the Doctor once again as a few flesh wandered in, a redheaded girl, a blonde woman, a brown haired man, and a dark haired girl, "Come on, come on!" The flesh looked around, amazed by the running water, something had changed about them. They were happy, "All they wanna do is pass it on! Pass it on!" he cried enthusiastically, jumping up and down with a grin of triumph on his face.

"Pass on what? Pass on what!" Cassandra called down to him. Hope, the cure to all their diseases, happiness, Rose thought. How could Cassandra not realize that?

The Doctor appeared not to have heard Cassandra and continued to shout, "Pass it on!" And as he did, flesh were holding hands, grasping shoulders, even hugging. With each touch, a small cloud of steam appeared. Slowly every single flesh was touched and the Doctor, watched happily from the lift where he stood, dripping liquid, and his hair was plastered to his head, smiling. As he watched, all the crack, pustules, blisters, red splotches on their skin faded away, leaving fresh and healthy faces.

He caught Cassandra as she jumped down the hatch, into the lift with him. She looked out at his work,

"What did they pass on?" she asked quietly, her eyes flickering between the Doctor and the flesh, "Did you kill them? All of them?" Rose couldn't help but be disgusted at the hopefulness in Cassandra's voice as she asked that.

"No." he shook his head still grinning, "That's _your_ way of doing things." He sauntered out into the lobby to greet them, now cured of everything. Cassandra followed cautiously, "I'm the Doctor, and I cured them!" he said proudly.

All the flesh had a new clear look to them and they looked alive. The redheaded girl came up to him and hugged him.

"That's right. Hey, hey!" he wrapped his arms around her and Rose couldn't help the twinge of jealousy that crackled into play, "There we go sweet heart." He said looking down at her, "Ay? Look at him…" he said motioning to a man over to his left and off she went to hug him too, "Go on, that's it! That's it! It's a new sub-species Cassandra!" Rose wanted to be able to smile so bad right now, and be able to kiss the Doctor out of happiness, "A brand new form of life!" he said placing his hands on a man's shoulders. He walked around, happy with his work, "New Humans! Look at them, look! Grown by cats... kept in the dark, fed by tubes... but completely, completely alive! You can't deny them because you helped create them." The smile slipped from Cassandra's lips at the thought of that, "The human race just keep on going. Keeps on changing! Life will out! Ha!" he cried happily.

After wandering around making sure that all of the flesh were accounted for and that they were ok, the Doctor and Cassandra went to see how things were going up in Ward 26.

"This is the NNYPD. Please step away from the shuttles." A police officer called through the PA system, followed by,

"All staff will present themselves to the officers for immediate arrest. I repeat... immediate arrest. All new life forms will be cataloged and taken into care. All visitors will be required to make a statement to the NNYPD."

The Doctor came through a door into the Ward, he had taken his suit jacket off and Cassandra followed looking bored. They watched as Novice Hame was led toward a shuttle by and officer, she looked back at the Doctor, she had a look of betrayal in her eyes. The Doctor just looked at her, than his eyes lit up as he remembered something,

"The Face of Boe!" he cried, rushing over to the strange, bodiless face. Cassandra followed rolling her eyes. There he was, blinking in his glass tank, seeming completely happy and healthy, "You were supposed to be dying." He said cheekily grinning at the face.

"There are better things to do today." The Face of Boe replied simply sending the message to their minds, "Dying can wait."

"Oh, I hate telepathy. Just what I need, a head full of big face!" Cassandra said crossly.

"Shh!" the Doctor hissed.

"I have grown tired of the universe, Doctor, but you have told me to look at it anew."

"There are legends, you know, saying that you're millions of years old." The Doctor said, squatting down next to the Face of Boe.

"There are? That would be impossible." Boe laughed.

"Wouldn't it just? I got the impression... that there was something you wanted to tell me..." The Doctor asked pulling at his ear, now very serious.

"A great secret."

"So the legends say."

"It can wait."

"Oh, does it have to?" the Doctor seemed incredibly disappointed.

"We shall meet again Doctor, for the third time… for the last time... and the truth shall be told. Until that day…" Boe told them. After he had spoken he disappeared, leaving a teal sparkling light that vanished after him.

"That is enigmatic." The Doctor said nodding his head vigorously, "That... that is... that is _textbook_ enigmatic.' He placed his hands on his legs as he turned around and soot up, "And now for you." He walked over to Cassandra.

"But… everything's happy." He gave her a look: it wasn't cutting it, "Everything's fine… can't you just leave me?"

"You've lived long enough." He said. He just wanted his Rose back! Yes, _his_ Rose, "Leave that body and end it, Cassandra." She looked at him as one of her hands flew to her mouth as she started to "cry".

"I don't want to die!" she said hoping the Doctor would take pity on her and leave her be.

"No one does." He agreed.

"Help me!"

"I can't." he said flatly and unwillingly.

"Mistress!" Chip came running over to them grinning from ear to ear.

"Ah! you're alive!"

"I kept myself safe. For you, mistress." he said happily.

"A body… and not just that, a volunteer…" she said, a sly smile creeping onto her face.

"Don't you dare! He's got a life of his own!" the Doctor cried, shaking his finger at Cassandra.

"But I worship the mistress!" Cassandra just smiled and winked at the Doctor, "I welcome her." Chip smiled at Cassandra.

"You can't Cassandra, you..." but he was too late, she was already taking a deep breath and out she went, a pink cloud on a mission. The Doctor hurried to catch Rose as she slumped to the floor, "Oh! You all right?' he asked, glad to have Rose back. She stood upright for a second and legs gave way again, "Whoa! Okay?" he asked, holding her close. She felt dizzy, and there was a slight buzz in her left ear.

"Yeah… yeah…" she breathed looking up at him, a smile emerged, "Hello!"

"Hello." he said smiling back at her, "Welcome back." he was just about ready to kiss her at that moment.

"Oh, sweet Lord." The two of them each took a step away from each other as Cassandra looked at herself, "I'm a walking doodle." She smiled at the thought.

"You can't stay in there. I'm sorry, Cassandra, but that's not fair. I can take you to the City. They can build you a skin tank and you can stand trial for what you've done."

"Well that would be rather dramatic, possibly my finest hour, and certainly my finest hat." Cassandra laughed a bit. Rose smiled at that and met the Doctor's eye, her finest hat… "But I'm afraid we don't have time. Poor little Chip is only a half-life. And he's been through so much. His heart is racing so. He's failing. I don't think he's going to last..." but before Cassandra could finish talking she collapsed to her knees, holding her right hand over her heart she looked at the ground.

"Are you all right?" the Doctor asked as he and Rose grabbed her to keep her upright.

"Oh, I'm fine." Rose looked at the Doctor, he looked sad, he knew something about what was happening but he didn't want to say. She looked back at Chip's body, he didn't seem like he was all that bad, "I'm dying. But that's fine." Cassandra smiled at Rose.

"I can take you to the City." The Doctor began.

"No, you won't. Everything's new on this planet. There's no place for Chip and me anymore." Cassandra said, still smiling. It was strange. Rose would have expected her to be completely upset and disbelieving at the thought, but no. She was completely calm, "You're right, Doctor. It's time to die…" the Doctor lowered his eyes, "That's good…" Rose and the Doctor helped her up, and supported her as she hobbled with them,

"Come on." The Doctor said, "There's one last thing I can do…" Rose looked at him knowingly and he nodded.


	16. Beautiful

Beautiful

As the Doctor opened the doors of the TARDIS and they helped Cassandra up into the jump seat. She just looked around in astonishment

"It's bigger on the inside!" she gasped in wonder, soaking in the sight of the glowing console, the coral struts, and the golden walls, Rose laughed and the Doctor smiled. He was glad that Cassandra was happy at the moment. The smile slid off his face and was replaced by a slight frown he stared at the ground. Rose noticed this as she pulled her hair up,

"Shall I get a cloak, for a disguise I mean. So that Cassandra from the past won't recognize herself later?" she whispered in his ear. He nodded slowly.

"Remember! First left, second right, third on the left, go straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins, fifth door on your left." He called after her as she jogged down the corridor. He sighed and started fiddling with the buttons, he started to move the TARDIS slowly through the Time Vortex, waiting for Rose to get back to land her at their planned destination.

He looked over at Cassandra, who had started to doze off on the white seat. She looked a lot happier when she was asleep, not so evil. He wondered what she had been like before she had turned into that thin slab of skin, the loud, rude, and malicious piece of lipstick and skin. Was she an ordinary person? Did she have a family? Was she in love? Did she lose somebody? What had turned her into the being he had met at the end of the world?

Cassandra must not have had a very happy life to become this he decided. He sighed again, wishing Rose would hurry up so they could give Cassandra one last chance to be happy before she died. His thoughts turned to Rose then. Was the information Cassandra had dragged up true or did she just want him to think that because she was a rather twisted person. No, she couldn't have been telling the truth. Why would Rose love him?

At that moment Rose burst back into the room waving a long black cloak over her head.

"I've got it." She said breathlessly. Cassandra stirred and blinked her eyes a bit, trying to remember where she was. When she remembered, she lifted herself heavily off the jump seat and wobbled over to Rose who helped her put the cloak on. The Doctor watched sadly from the console as he landed the TARDIS as smoothly as possible.

Rose helped Cassandra walk out of the TARDIS as best as they could and the Doctor went on ahead, holding back the curtain of black cloth, so that Cassandra could see herself, all dressed up in a silver dress, it was the party that she had shown Rose. She remembered… it had been the last time anyone had called her beautiful… Know she remembered what the man had looked like. He had worn a long black cloak and leather and he had had strange tattoos on his face… she remembered what had happened to him and realized what she had to do.

She smiled slowly as she watched everyone laughing she turned to face the Doctor,

"Thank you." She said sadly.

"Just go." He replied, "And don't look back." Cassandra turned back to the party.

"Good luck." Rose said softly, she turned and saw that her eyes were shining. Rose was feeling bad for her. She turned back to the laughter and walked towards herself. She watched as people laughed at what she was saying,

"And if you'd actually seen them, they were shocked ! But don't quote me on that. Oh, naughty. À bientôt." Her past self said walking away from the group. Cassandra knew this was her time.

"Excuse me... the Lady Cassandra..." She said smiling. Her younger self was so full of herself, well, she had been incredibly full of herself until about half an hour ago, she thought.

"I'm sorry, I don't need anything right now... I'm fine thank you." She said starting to turn away.

"No... I just wanted to say... you look beautiful."

"Well. That's very kind, you strange little thing." She said looking Chip's body up and down, "Thank you very much." She said with a smile.

"I mean it." She took a step towards herself, "You look... so beautiful." her voice was sincere and the past Cassandra recognized that.

"Thank you." There were tears in her eyes now. Cassandra felt her heart slip away as her eyes fluttered and rolled back into her head, closing one last time and she fell to the ground.

"Oh, my Lord!" the younger Cassandra kneeled down next to her, supporting her, "Are you all right? What is it? What's wrong? Someone get some help!' she gathered the body in her arms as people ran around trying to find anyone, anybody that could try and help the strange man that had just collapsed, "Call a medic or something, quickly! I don't know. He just came up to me. I don't even know his name." her voice was shaking, she didn't know why, but it was, "He just collapsed. I think he's dying. Someone do something!" she cried looking around frantically, rocking the man back and forth, "I've got you sweetheart… it's all right... There you are... there you are, I've got you... it'll be all right... There, there, you poor little thing..."

The Doctor looked at the scene and nudged Rose to go back inside. He looked down at her face, there were tears threatening to spill out of her hazel eyes. She looked back one more time, and so did he, before he turned and walked into the TARDIS.


	17. A Dream?

**Author's Note:** This chapter is purely from my own imagination. None of it happened in the episode, that makes me rather sad. Please tell me what you think!

A Dream?

Rose leaned against a coral column and slid down, even though she didn't like Cassandra all that much, she still felt really sad. Cassandra had been mean and shallow true, but she had turned that around once she had gone into Chip. It was like her entire way of thinking had changed.

She looked up to see the Doctor's hand extended for hers. She slipped her fingers into his and pulled herself up. He wrapped his arms around her as she cried silently onto his shoulder.

"Do you think she was happy in the end?" she asked him, not letting go of him.

"Yeah, I think she was. Besides she made herself happy, she helped herself out a bit I should think. At that moment I think she remembered what it was to be compassionate." He murmured into her hair.

"Yeah…" she whispered. She sighed and untangled her arms from around him, "She wasn't to bad, thinking back on it... Who am I kidding, she was a psychopathic trampoline that wore too much lipstick. But how she acted in that last hour, it was like she wasn't Cassandra anymore. It was like Chip's mind changed hers. It's like they became one person, literally..." she looked through the grating lost in thought, "Oh and one thing… that's not how I kiss." she sounded nervous.

"Oh really? Shouldn't I know though? I mean from Christmas…" he grinned cheekily at her.

"Really…" She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him swiftly on the lips. When she had finished, he looked dazed again. She giggled two rosy spot appearing on her cheeks and started to head to her room, when he turned her to face him again and kissed her. She staggered backwards a bit, surprised, but a second later she was kissing him back. He wrapped his arms around her again and she did like wise. They separated only when she ran out of breath as his respiratory bypass system had kicked in. They leaned their foreheads together and just smiled.

"Are you sure Cassandra didn't do something to your head?" Rose teased, grinning, her tongue poking out a bit.

"Just about to ask you the same thing." He replied slyly. Rose giggled and leaned in for one last kiss, which quickly deepened. When they pulled apart reluctantly, they just held each other. Rose finally walked to her room with a slight buzz flying through her head. She flung her door open and jumped onto her bed and lay there smiling. They hadn't had to say anything; they had just agreed silently that they loved each other.

Rose knew that she had felt that way for a long time now. She thought back to when they had seen the end of the world and how jealous she had been when Jabe, a tree, and the Doctor had flirted with each other. Rose hadn't wanted to admit that he liked him at all then, but that was because her mum, well, her mum would have freaked if she told her that she liked a 900 year old alien who looked like he was in his mid-forties.

She got up slowly and pulled a pair of short cotton shorts and a pink tank top out of her drawer and slid them on, the silly grin not budging an inch. She dove under the covers and thoughts of what would happen now. She closed her eyes and fell asleep in seconds.

The Doctor had plopped down and sat gazing off into space a slight smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. Rose had kissed him and liked it… _Rose!_ After a second the smile slid off his face, he knew he wouldn't have forever with her and that was the problem. She was human and he was a Time Lord. She had about 60, 70 years to live if she was lucky, while he had the rest of eternity.

oO*Oo

He curled up into a ball as he stared through the grated floor at all the lights blinking and all of the gizmos whirling. He made up his mind. He would spend the rest of her lifetime with her; that was a promise. He unfurled himself and trudged sluggishly to his room.

He lay down on his back not bothering to change out of his suit and sighed sadly. An image of Rose popped up in his mind, she was smiling with her tongue poking out, and she was laughing. That was the Rose he fell in love with, that was the Rose whose room he could never find, that was his Rose.

Another thought shot through his mind as he lay gazing up at the moving image of galaxies on his ceiling. Maybe it wasn't the best idea for them to be together… What if something terrible happened to her, he wouldn't be able to live like that, he might as well kill himself, but than he would regenerate and he rather liked this body. The Doctor realized that he would have to protect Rose, even if it meant sending her back, no he would never forgive himself if he sent her back. So the Doctor just shut the thoughts out of his head and fell asleep for the few hours he slept each night.

After about three hours he woke up and decided to go to the library. On his way he noticed that a door was open, a door that he didn't see open very often, it was Rose's room. He stood leaning against the doorframe, she had a sweet smile on her peaceful face. He smiled as he entered the library and curled up in his big comfy armchair with _The Time Machine_ by H. G. Wells for what seemed the millionth time.

oO*Oo

Rose woke with a start as she sat up. She looked at her digital clock; it was 6:37 am. She felt like she had had the most amazing dream last night. The Doctor had kissed her! Than she remembered, it wasn't a dream. A smile crept onto her face as she fell back onto her bed.


	18. Rock or Royalty?

**Author's Note: **Now for Tooth and Claw. Hmm... this one is going to be kind of tricky, as it isn't one of my favorites, though it is completely brilliant.

**Disclaimer: **I wish I could say that I did own it.

Tooth and Claw

Rock or Royalty?

Rose trudged out of her room in her jimjams. Yes, jimjams, she thought, ever since the Doctor had said the word it had stuck in her head, jimjams. She smiled sleepily as she remembered the Doctor comparing himself to Arthur Dent. He kept trying to get her to read _The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_, but she had always forgotten.

She shuffled into the kitchen still rubbing her eyes when she felt the Doctor wrap his arms around her. She melted into the hug as she smiled up at him.

"Morning." she said as she unraveled her arms from around the Doctor's thin waist.

"Morning." He replied and he kissed her lightly on the lips. Rose smiled, she was still getting used to actually being more than a friend to the Doctor.

Rose poured herself a glass of the banana smoothie that the Doctor had made earlier and plopped down next to him.

"So where'd you wanna go?" he asked. She thought for a bit and an idea popped into her head,

"How about we go to The Beatles last ever concert or Elvis?" she asked hopefully. He grinned back at her. He loved a good rock song. Rose drained her smoothie and ran to get stuff that would most likely be appropriate for the era.

She flung open the doors of her wardrobe and produced a dungaree skirt, a pink t-shirt, purple knit tights, a pair of black leather boots, and a knee-length floral dress. She stuffed them into random bag. She slung the strap and ran to the console to find the Doctor.

"So for a concert in the seventies, a dress or a skirt?" she asked him as he rifled through CDs. He fumbled with a case as he looked over at her,

"Hmm… I'd say the skirt…" he returned to attempting to wrench the plastic cover apart. Rose grabbed the dungaree skirt, t-shirt, tights, and boots and rushed off to change. She skipped back grinning to herself, waiting for the Doctor to look up from the CD he had finally freed. She shoved her bag under the console,

"What d'you think of this? Will it do?" she asked nervously. He looked her up and down quickly,

"In the late 1970s? You'd be better off in a bin bag." Thanks Doctor, thanks, she thought with annoyance, "Hold on listen to this." He popped the CD into the TARDIS's console. Rose recognized the song immediately. It was Ian Dury and the Blockheads' _Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick._ Her mum had a whole collection of albums from the time of all the famous rock stars, a large portion of which was Elvis.

"Ian Dury and the Blockheads. Number One in 1979." The Doctor said, a gleam in his eye. He wandered to the other side of the console and Rose followed him grinning madly as he looked back at her.

"You're a punk!" she giggled as he sang along, _It's good to be a lunatic…_ "That's what you are. A big old punk with a bit of Rockabilly thrown in." he grinned as she said so and a brilliant idea popped into that big Time Lord head of his.

"Would you like to see him?" he asked not looking at Rose.

"How d'you mean? In concert?" she asked skeptically before remembering what she had asked him at breakfast.

"What else is a TARDIS for?" he asked shrugging his shoulders as a grin grew on Rose's face, "I can take you to the battle of Trafalgar…" he danced around the console again, Rose still playing follow the leader did the same, "The first anti-gravity Olympics, Caesar crossing the Rubicon…or… Ian Dury at the Top Rank, Sheffield, England, Earth, 21st of November 1979. What d'you think?" he asked grinning back.

"Sheffield it is." Rose said after a second's hesitation.

"Hold on tight." the Doctor replied throwing a switch. The two were thrown off their feet as the TARDIS lurched unexpectedly. The Doctor jumped to his feet and a worried look passed over his face,

"No, no, no, no, no…" he whined as he dragged his hands down his face. He sprang into action, grabbing a rubber mallet and started banging the console to the beat of the song in an attempt to set back on track, while shouting angrily at the TARDIS.

"Stop!" Rose cried noticing the TARDIS wasn't taking it to well and they were thrown onto their backs again. The two burst out laughing for no reason at all and looked at each other.

"1979!" cried the Doctor leaping to his feet, pulling Rose up with him. "Hell of a year!" He pulled his beloved coat off of one of the struts, still bubbling over with excitement. "China invades Vietnam. The Muppet Movie! Love that film!" he grinned skipping backwards down the ramp; Rose followed clapping her hands and grinning. "Margaret Thatcher…" he made a noise as he grimaced as he pulled his jacket on and Rose giggled, "Skylab falls to Earth, with a little help from me, nearly took off my thumb…" he pulled open the door still intent on telling Rose about his adventure. "And I like my thumb, I need my thumb, I'm very attached… to my thumb…" he said as he realized riffles were being pointed at them so he slowly raised his hands and Rose followed his example. They were surrounded by a group of soldiers.

"1879…" the Doctor winced, "Same difference…"

"You will explain your presence. And the nakedness of this girl." A soldier on horse said in a strong Scottish accent, he was clearly the captain.

"Are we in Scotland?" the Doctor asked in a lilting Scottish accent, a grin spreading across his face. Rose's heart fluttered at the sound of the Doctor's Scottish accent. She didn't even know he could do one.

"How can you be ignorant of that?" the captain asked cocking his head to one side, still pointing the gun straight at the Doctor.

"Oh, I'm… I'm dazed and confused. I've been chasing this… this wee naked child over hill and over dale." He tilted his head at Rose, keeping a very convincing accent up, "Isn't that right, ya… timorous beastie?" he asked her looking her up and down before deciding he was done. She paused unsure if she should speak or not, but the captain's cold eyes answered her question.

"Ooch, aye! I've been oot an' aboot." Rose said, trying to talk in a Scottish accent as well but failing miserably.

"No, don't do that." The Doctor said turning his head to look at her and reverting back to his London accent.

"Hoots mon!" she said again in the same accent.

"No, _really_ don't. Really." he told her, a pleading look in his eye.

"Will you identify yourself, sir?" the captain asked.

"I'm Doctor James McCrimmon." The Doctor said quickly, "From the… township of Balamory… Ah… I have my credentials, if I may…" the captain nodded his consent and the Doctor quickly rummaged through his bigger on the inside pockets. Rose lowered her hands as well and gave a quick smile to the captain as she watched the Doctor pull out his psychic paper, "As you can see, a Doctorate from the University of Edinburgh." He waved the paper about so all the soldiers could see, "Trained under Doctor Bell himself."

"Let them approach." A dainty woman's voice called from the vicinity of the carriage.

"I don't think that's wise Ma'am." The captain responded, his pistol still pointed at the two strangers.

"Let them approach." The voice insisted again. The Doctor gestured to the carriage asking silently if they were permitted or not.

"You will approach the carriage." The Doctor looked at Rose, triumph glistened in his eyes as he nodded toward the carriage, 'And show all due deference.' The Doctor saluted the captain with one finger and looked Rose in the eye grinning as they made their way towards the posh black carriage. A footman opened the door as they got closer do that the two could see clearly who was sitting inside.

"Rose… might I introduce Her Majesty, Queen Victoria. Empress of India and Defender of the Faith." Queen Victoria looked down her nose at them proudly. Rose immediately felt shy and foolish in the presence of the old woman.

"Rose Tyler, Ma'am." She curtseyed not taking her eyes off the queen, "And my apologies… for being so naked." She giggled nervously as the Queen smiled slowly.

"I've had five daughters. It's nothing to me. But you, Doctor… show me these credentials." The Doctor handed the wallet to Queen Victoria and waited while she studied them, "Why didn't you say so immediately? It states clearly here that you've been appointed by the Lord Provost as my protector." She handed the psychic paper back to him.

"Does it?" the Doctor asked in a high-pitched voice, "Yes it does! Good, good! Um… then let me ask… Why is Your Majesty traveling by road when there's a train all the way to Aberdeen?"

"A tree on the line." She said flatly.

"An accident?" the Doctor asked, keeping up his Scottish charade.

"I am the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Everything around me tends to be planned."

"An assassination attempt?" the Doctor frowned.

"What, seriously? There's people out to kill ya?" Rose asked in disbelief, when she thought of assassinations she thought of Martin Luther King Jr. or Gandhi, but never Queen Victoria.

"I'm quite used to staring down the barrel of a gun." The Queen seemed a bit proud of this and it didn't help Rose feel that welcome.

"Sir Robert MacLeish lives but ten miles hence." The captain spoke up again, clearly wanting to get a move on, "We'll send word ahead; he'll shelter us for tonight, than we can reach Balmorals tomorrow."

"This Doctor and his… timorous beastie," Queen Victoria smiled slightly as she referred to Rose with the Doctor's odd choice of words, "Will come with us." The Doctor looked at Rose and they grinned.

"Yes, Ma'am. We'd better get moving, it's almost nightfall."

"Indeed. And there are stories of _wolves_ in these parts. Fanciful tales. Intended to scare the children, but good for the _blood_ I think." Her Majesty's eyes lit up when she mentioned the wolves and what she thought of the stories; she clearly enjoyed them, "Drive on!" Rose raised her eyebrows to the Doctor and off they walked, right next to the carriage.

"Funny though, 'cos when you say "assassination" an' you just think of Kennedy an' stuff. Not her." Rose told the Doctor.

"1879, she's had... oo... six attempts on her life?" the Doctor estimated, "And I'll tell you somethin' else: we just met Queen Victoria!" there was nothing that could hide the glee in his voice.

"I know!" Rose laughed back, grasping his arm as she hopped a bit out of pure excitement.

"What a laugh!" he cried back with the same level of excitement.

"And she was just sitting there." Rose smiled widely up at him.

"Like a stamp!" he commented.

"I want her to say: We are _not_ amused. I bet you five quid I can make her say it." She told him confidently.

"Well, if I gambled on that, it'd be an abuse of my privileges as a traveler in time." Rose laughed to herself. He was such a chicken sometimes!

"Ten quid." She kept a straight face.

"Done." They were both completely confident of their side of the bet as they walked, the view of a grey sky, grey grass, and dark green mountains barely changing. Rose slipped her fingers into his and swung their hands happily. Oh, she so wished he had told her the date _before _they had exited the Tardis because then she would have gotten to wear a dress like the garnet gown she had worn on their trip to 1869 when they had encountered the Gelth.

She leaned her head on his shoulder as she felt her eyes grow heavier and she wished she were in the carriage with Her Majesty. Well no, she didn't, Queen Victoria didn't seem the friendliest of people. She dozed off and the Doctor picked her up and carried her bridal style.

Rose woke up immediately as she saw the landscape change from plains in mountains. There was only one building insight: an enormous stone estate.


	19. Torchwood

**Author's Note: **Sorry I haven't updated for a while! I was visiting some family and they aren't all that keen on using the computer all that much... so yup. Oh and one more thing. I have revised everything, fixed some stuff... added here and there... tell me what you think!

Torchwood

As they entered through the tall, iron gate, the Doctor glanced at the stone cross and then shot a piercing look at the house, there was someone in one of the windows. The next thing that drew his eye was a beautiful, brass telescope, poking its lens through the glass ceiling of what must be the observatory.

The footman opened the carriage door slowly and out stepped a rather stiff Queen Victoria. A man who appeared to be the master walked forward, smiling nervously, followed by a middle-aged, bald man. I don't blame him, the Doctor thought as he saw the master gulp.

"Your Majesty." He said swiftly, bowing low.

"Sir Robert." The Queen replied, 'My apologies for the emergency. And how is Lady Isobel?' she inquired with a pert smile on her mouth.

"She's… indisposed… She's gone to Edinburgh for the season." He paused, unsure what to say next, "And she's taken the _cook_ with her, the kitchens are barely stocked, I wouldn't blame Your Majesty if you wanted to ride on." The Doctor cocked his head, he knew that this was a warning to stay away, something must have happened here, or else something was waiting. The Queen didn't catch any of it,

"Not at all, I've had quite enough carriage exercise! And this is... charming. If rustic. It's my first visit to this house. My late husband spoke of it often. The Torchwood Estate. Now, shall we go inside?" Sir Robert glanced around nervously, "And please excuse the naked girl." she remembered Rose's state of dress. Rose's cheeks reddened slightly,

"Sorry." she said as grinned up at the Doctor, blushing even more at the look on his face.

"She's a feral child. I bought her for sixpence in old London Town. It was her or the Elephant Man, so..." he tried to give Rose an embarrassing history to aggravate her.

"Thinks he's funny but I'm so not amused." Rose said looking with a pointed expression to Queen Victoria, "What do you think, Ma'am?" Rose was going to win this bet, the Doctor had won the last one so she had to win this one. She waited for the words to pass from her Majesty's lips,

"It hardly matters. Shall we proceed?" Rose's spirits fell as Sir Robert nodded and began the tour of his house. The Queen strode into the Manor followed by her large entourage.

"So close." Rose drawled quietly to the Doctor who just grinned and shook his head. She elbowed him hard in the stomach and that put an end to his teasing. She looked back at the house and then at the servants. She couldn't shake the feeling that there was something shifty about that lot.

"Makerson and Ramsey, you will escort the Property. Hurry up." Captain Reynolds commanded and two soldiers, who Rose assumed were Makerson and Ramsey, replied, "Yes sir." and marched to the still open carriage door and retrieved a small mahogany chest with fastenings. She could practically feel the Doctor spilling over with curiosity at the little box as they followed it with their eyes.

"What's in there, then?" the Doctor asked, his boyish curiosity showing.

"Property of the Crown." the Captain answered, "You will dismiss any further thoughts, sir." The Doctor looked at Rose and pulled a face and she tried not to giggle as the Captain continued to give orders, "The rest of you go to the rear of the house. Assume your designated positions." Off trotted the soldiers, to where ever they were needed.

"You heard the orders. Positions, sir." a soldier repeated in case anyone hadn't been paying attention.

"Come on." the Doctor whispered into her ear, sending shivers down her spine, nodding towards the house and they followed the others inside.

oO*Oo

Rose and the Doctor had been giggling with each other, the whole trip so far, which had included the kitchen, parlor, and entrance hall. They had received a few stern looks from Queen Victoria which made them laugh even harder. After a quick hike up the stairs they were being led into a plain room with white brick walls and a few astronomy gizmos and an enormous brass telescope. This was the Observatory.

Rose looked up at the Doctor's face and there was no mistaking the look that was urging to immediately start sonic-ing and investigating the beautiful instrument. She smiled and bit her lip.

"This, I take it, is the famous Endeavour." the Queen sounded impressed.

"All my father's work." Sir Robert explained, "Built by hand in his final years. Became something of an obsession... he spent his money on this rather than caring for the house or himself." the Doctor was grinning madly at this all and Rose smiled that the 901 year old alien acted just like a little boy might about his new toy.

"I wish I'd met him, I like him." the Doctor said nodding and feasting his eyes on all the gears and the elaborate moon shaped stand that it rested on, "That thing's beautiful. Can I um...?" he asked reaching a hand out in the direction of the piece of art.

"Help yourself." Sir Robert said, he didn't seem to care all that much about whether or not the Doctor might damage it in anyway. He and Rose hurried over to the enormous telescope and the wheel beside it, and began to examine it, grinning the entire time. Rose went to the wheel and the Doctor went to the telescope.

"What did he model it on?" the Doctor asked, staring up at the lens.

"I know nothing about it. To be honest, most of us thought him a little... shall we say, eccentric." Sir Robert explained, chuckling a bit at the last part. The Doctor grinned, laughing a bit himself, and Rose walked around to join him.

"I wish now I'd spent more time with him." he glanced over to Victoria, "And listened to his stories." she met his gaze and smiled slightly. Rose watched them for a bit and then turned her attention back to the Doctor who was now kneeling on the wooden floorboards and squinting up through the telescope.

"It's a bit rubbish." he noted, and Rose walked over to stand next to him, "How many prisms has it got? Way too many." he babbled standing up, puzzling over it, "The magnification's gone right over the top, that's stupid kind of a..." he stopped blabbing and whispered quickly into Rose's ear, searching her eyes, "_A_m I being rude again?"

"Yep." she nodded, patting him on the arm with an embarrassed smile to Sir Robert, Queen Victoria, and the staff.

"But it's pretty! It's very... pretty." the Doctor said quickly, trying to cover for his slip up, patting the telescope nervously.

"And the imagination of it should be applauded." the Queen said, walking towards them, smiling. Rose saw the opportunity to attempt to keep her end of the bet floating and took it.

"Mm! Thought you might disapprove, Your Majesty. Stargazing. Isn't that a bit fanciful?" she watched as a confused expression crossed her Majesty's face as she stared at Rose like she was insane, "You could easily... not be amused, or somethin'...? No?" she was not doing to well in their bet so far. She looked at the Doctor who had a slight smile playing on his lips as he shook his head and wiped his eye.

"This device surveys the infinite work of God. What could be finer?" she asked them and turned to Sir Robert, "Sir Robert's father was an example to us all. A polymath. Steeped in astronomy and sciences, yet equally well versed in folklore and fairytales." Rose was getting rather annoyed with Queen Vicky, why wouldn't she just say "we are not amused"? She looked back up at the telescope, flicking her eyes at the Doctor's face and then back up to the colossal instrument.

"Stars and magic. I like him more and more." he said, wandering away from them, escaping the gaze of Queen Victoria and began to examine a part toward the front of it.

"Oh, my late husband enjoyed his company." the queen said fondly, "Prince Albert himself was acquainted with many rural superstitions, coming as he did from Saxe Coburg." she told Rose.

"That's Bavaria." the Doctor said softly into her ear, sending another shiver up her back.

"When Albert was told about your local wolf, he was transported." her Majesty said, turning to Sir Robert.

"So, what's this wolf, then?" the Doctor asked and Rose just knew that his mind was buzzing with ideas about whether or not it could be alien, he could be such a boy sometimes.

"It's just a story." Sir Robert said, trying to avoid the question.

"Then tell it." the Doctor said solemnly. Rose could see the fear in Sir Robert's eyes as his smile faded and he glanced nervously back at the staff.

"It's said that-" he started but was cut off by the head of staff, "Excuse me, sir. Perhaps her Majesty's party could repair to their rooms. It's almost dark." Rose knew something was going on, something was definitely wrong with the houses staff, it was like they were hiding something. Sir Robert glanced back at them again, "Of course." he smiled, "Yes, of course." he repeated, clasping his hands.

"And then supper. And... could we find some clothes for Miss Tyler? I'm tired of nakedness." Queen Victoria said tiredly. Rose tried again, "It's not amusing, is it?" she asked pointedly, smiling the smile she used when trying to egg someone on. Queen Victoria looked at her and decided to ignore the last comment. The Doctor whispered, "So help me?" she grinned and poked him playfully in the chest while her Majesty continued to talk to Sir Robert.

"Sir Robert, your wife must've left some clothes. See to it. We shall dine at seven. And talk some more of this wolf. After all... there is a full moon tonight." Sir Robert smiled nervously at the Queen.

"So there is, Ma'am." he replied and with that he bowed, so the Queen could not see the cloud of worry pass across his face. Rose and the Doctor followed Queen Victoria out of the observatory where one of the bald men led Rose to Lady Isobel's room to find something more suitable to where.


	20. Something of the Wolf

Something of the Wolf

Rose stared at the room that lay before her eyes, the maroon walls were adorned with a few small paintings and a child's sampler, two ebony wardrobes stood up against the wall, and a huge four-poster bed took up the middle of the room, with orangey drapes hung about it. She walked slowly to one wardrobe and ran her fingers over the door, she felt like this was a fairytale! Rose opened the door and went dress hunting. The first was a plain brown, Rose held it up and almost immediately put it back. What wrong for wanting live out her fantasy? Next she pulled out a frilly blouse, she smiled and placed it back on the rack. She stared into the mirror for a second, wondering what the Doctor was doing. She snapped herself out of the thought and pulled a royal blue satin frock, with a lace collar, out. She held it up to herself and suddenly a conversation she'd had with the Doctor when he was still in leather.

_"Blimey!" the Doctor had said, looking at her in surprise._

_"Don't laugh!" she laughed, swirling her skirts a bit._

_"You look beautiful!" he told her, taking in the costume: a Victorian garnet red dress, with black lace covering the bodice, a short black velvet cape, tall black button up boots, and two simple earrings made of two small black stones. Rose smiled happily to the Doctor, who stared back at her for a second and then looked away awkwardly, "... considering." he sonic-ed the gizmo in his hand._

_"Considering what?" Rose asked him incredulously, hands on her hips._

_"That you're human!" the Doctor said, thinking that it must have been the most obvious thing in the world._

Rose laughed, wondering what the Doctor would think now. She smiled slowly and danced around a bit, holding the dress up to herself. She gently lay it down on the cream-colored bedding and skipped to the second wardrobe to find shoes. Rose pulled open the heavy wooden door and screamed, there was a maid, a girl, standing in the wardrobe, she must be hiding!

"It's okay, I won't hurt you." Rose said calmly. She offered her hand to the girl and she accepted it as she stepped out of the closet slowly, "Why were you hiding?" she asked.

"They came through the house. The incitements, they took the Steward and the Master. And my Lady." the maid said in a shaking voice, grasping Rose's hand tightly. Rose squeezed the maid's hand trying to comfort her.

"Listen... I've got a friend, he's called the Doctor, he'll know what to do. You've gotta come with me." Rose said smiling gently, her eyes bright at the thought of another adventure.

"Oh, but I can't, Miss." the girl said quickly, shaking her head.

"What's your name?" Rose asked, thinking it would be better to get to know the poor girl before trying to get her involved with the mess of everything.

"F... Flora." she said slowly, her voice shaking again.

"Flora, we'll be safe. There's more people arrived downstairs; soldiers and everything, and they can help us. I promise. Come on. Okay? Come on." Rose told her, it seemed that she had been right in thinking that the servants were shifty, Flora had just given her the proof that she needed, now they just had to get to the Doctor without being caught... that was going to be difficult.

Rose peeked out of the doorway, looking both ways to make sure no one was coming, deeming it was safe she led Flora by the hand, back the way she had come. She stopped dead in her tracks as she rounded the corner.

"Oh, Miss. I did warn you!" There was a guard lying on the ground, not moving. She knelt by him and checked for a pulse, she let out a sigh of relief as she felt a steady, weak pulse beating.

"He's not dead... I don't think, he must be drugged or something." she muttered to herself. Hmm... what would the Doctor do? That's what Rose needed to know, she had to get to him now. A squeal interrupted her thoughts as she whipped her head back to see Flora being dragged away by one of the servants. Just as she was about to run to her, Rose felt a fabric coated hand clasp her mouth, muffling her cries as she too was dragged away. A sticky sweet smell fill her nostrils and she felt her body turn to lead, not able to move on her own in the slightest bit, but why was she able to tell what was on? Wasn't the drug supposed to make her pass out, so she wouldn't know what had happened? She heard a wolf call quietly, but it wasn't from the moor, it was from within her. Bad Wolf was keeping her conscious!

The next thing Rose was being pulled roughly down the servant's stairs, as not to disturb dinner. Dinner! That's where her Doctor was, if only she could get a message to him. She groaned inwardly as her head hit the ground hard as she was dropped onto some thinly scattered hay. She heard a servant muttering to another,

"Who's the blonde in no clothes?" one asked.

"I dunno, was traveling with Doctor What's-it, came out of a blue box in the middle of the moor. She learned too much that one." another answered in a gruff voice. She heard heavy breathing coming from behind her as she lay stone still on the cold ground, and a man gave a hissing shush to them and she could feel the fear emanating from them. She blocked everything out and decided to use her time knocked out as time to rest, so she fell asleep.

_Rose was standing on Satellite 5's top floor: Floor 500. A song was playing, it wasn't like any song she had ever heard before, it seemed to be coming from inside of her, it was her. The heart of the TARDIS, the Time Vortex was coursing through her and she could see everything, all that is, all that was, and all that ever could be, and it was burning her, consuming her, burning away her mortality. The Doctor was screaming at her to stop, but she couldn't she had control of all of time, the raw power was corrupting her and she loved it. She wasn't listening, then the Doctor kissed her slowly on the lips, drawing the Vortex out of her, taking it into himself. Rage shot through her as she collapsed. How dare he take the Vortex out of her?! It was burning the human out of her, adding something, but she didn't know what. He gathered her up in his arms and brought her back into the TARDIS._

Rose woke in a cold sweat, with a pain growing rapidly on the right side of her chest, she raised her left hand to the spot where a second heart would be if she was a Time Lady. She felt nothing out of the ordinary, it must have been her imagination, but the pain kept growing. But as soon as it had started it stopped. Rose looked around her and saw the faces of nine or ten worried and terrified people looking down at her. She sat up slowly and felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Is everything okay Miss?" Flora asked, a confused expression on her face.

"Yeah... yeah... I'm fine." Rose said out of breath. Why was she out of breath? Something was wrong here, she didn't know what, but she could feel it.

"It's just that you were thrashing about and you almost screamed and you kept chanting something over and over, but it was no language I've ever heard!" Flora said in rapid fire, her brow furrowed.

"Yeah I'm fine..." Rose turned to face what everyone else was staring at, a simple black wooden cage with a man in a black robe sitting in it, a malicious smile playing on his lips as he stared at the ground, "Who's that?" she asked searching everyone's face, but they just avoided her gaze, looking anywhere but her face. She had to get to the Doctor and the only way at present was to scream, she drew in a breath and opened her mouth, but a hand immediately clamped her mouth shut.

"Don't child." a woman in a wine colored dress with antique lace bordering the neck line and a black satin ribbon with a silver pendant hanging on it tied around her neck. Rose assumed that this was the Lady Isobel who was "indisposed", "Don't make a sound. They said if we scream or shout, then he will slaughter us." she said her voice trembling ever so slightly.

"But... he's in a cage. He's a prisoner. He's the same as us." he had to be, why else wood he be in a cage? And from the looks of him, he was probably a loony.

"He's nothing like us." Lady Isobel looked at the man sitting quietly by himself, her voice was full of fear now, "That creature is not mortal." Everyone was watching him know, Rose included. She watched in horror as he raised his head, exposing his bloodied eyelids. Then his eyes snapped open and she shuddered along with everyone else, orbs of pure black were staring out at her, he was definitely not human or he wasn't anymore, but what kind of alien was he? Rose made up her mind and stood up slowly.

"Don't, child." Isobel said again, looking up at Rose pleading her to reconsider this, but she ignored Isobel and stepped cautiously towards thing that wasn't trapped at all, just waiting.

"Who are you?" she asked quickly, not wanting to give away how frightened she was. She kneeled slowly, not wanting her legs to give way.

"Don't enrage him." the steward said slowly, not willing to get any closer to the being in the cage then he was.

"Where are you from? You're not from Earth." Rose paused, scared to ask her next question, "What planet are you from?"

"Ahhh... intelligence..." he cooed in a soft, high-pitched voice.

"Where were you born?" she asked.

"This body... ten miles away... a weakling, heartsick boy. Stolen away at night by the brethren from my cultivation." his voice grew deeper as he continued, his lips barely moving, "I carved out his soul and sat in his heart."

"All right... so the body's human... but what about you? The thing inside?" she could feel her body shaking slightly, all those times she had to pretend she wasn't afraid of the bullies during Secondary School vanished, this was ten times harder.

"So far from home." it seemed that it almost choked out the words.

"If you wanna get back home, we can help." I hope, she thought. How was she going to get this thing back to its planet if it wouldn't even tell her where it was from? Rose sighed inwardly, this was going to be tricky.

"Why would I leave this place?" it asked, slight confusion passing over the body's face, "A world of industry, of workforce and warfare. I could turn it to such purpose."

"How would you do that?" she asked, the thing, what ever it was, was giving her the creeps.

"I would migrate to the Holy Monarch." he replied simply in that airy, high voice.

"You mean Queen Victoria?" Rose asked, the reality of the situation hitting her hard.

"With one bite, I would pass into her blood. And then it begins. The Empire of the Wolf! So many questions..." he lunged toward the bars, Rose jumped back with a gasp, she could hear the others doing the same as well, "Look! Inside your eyes! You've seen it too!" the thing sounded deranged, Rose didn't want to help him all that much anymore, who said he wouldn't come back?

"Seen what?" she asked genuinely confused, then her face went white as a blank piece of paper; Bad Wolf.

"The Wolf! There is something of the Wolf about you!" he pressed himself further forward, confirming Rose's suspicions. The thing what ever it was, had something to do with wolves, and it could sense the Bad Wolf. Rose wasn't sure what to do, she needed the Doctor! She stared at him, not sure what to say.

"I don't know what you mean." she lied breathing heavily, knowing he could sense her lie.

"You burnt like the sun, but all I require is the moon." Rose stared at him, eyes growing wide. He was a werewolf! All those ghost stories and novels about werewolves, she had never believed any of it, but now... The thing bared its yellow and brown, cracked and crooked teeth, staring straight back at her, as if piercing her soul.

oO*Oo

Rose had sat with the others for what seemed like at least an hour, but knowing how impatient you can get when you're scared it was probably even less than half of that. Suddenly they heard a latch click and moonlight poured into the cellar. Rose watched nervously as the host pressed his face up against the bars, facing the moonlight, a blissful smile spreading across his lips.

"Moonlight..." he said softly, closing his eyes as he spent another second under the streaming glow. He removed his cloak and sat upright in his cage, facing the prisoners and Rose had a feeling of dread creeping over her, what if the Doctor didn't get to them before it was too late? She glanced around Isobel and the steward were holding onto each other, Flora and another maid huddled together, hiding their faces as the host gripped the bars tightly and a breeze swept by him. She watched him tense as the smile reappeared on his lips. She had to do something quick.

"All of you! Stop looking at it! Flora, don't look. Listen to me. Grab hold of the chain and pull!" Rose pulled with all her might, trying to rally the prisoners to avoid an instant death, "Come on! With me! Pull!" Rose looked around, everyone had gotten up and were pulling now, that is all except Lady Isobel. The werewolf growled and all Isobel could do was stare at in horror, "I said pull! Stop your whining and listen to me! All of you! And that means you, your Ladyship! Now come on, pull!" Everyone snapped out of the hypnotized state they had been in and started pulling.

Rose looked back at the cage and immediately wished she hadn't, the host was growing more purple veins in its face, and it's cheek bones seemed to jut forward. The man was howling, Rose didn't want to know if it was from pain, or if he just howled during his transformation. It's teeth grew into sharp long points, and its ears grew as well.

"One... two... three... pull!" Rose cried over the growls of the wolf. She looked back over, the thing had just about doubled in size, coated in a silvery colored fur and was still growing. They all pulled in sync, the adrenaline making them pull with extra strength, "One... two... three... pull!" she called again, everyone heaved, the chains rattling, "One... two... three... pull!" the pulled again and Rose looked over at the creature, it looked like a giant wolf now, but it held itself like a human did, it raised one of its hands and flexed its claws, "One, two, three, pull!" they pulled again, and the chain broke free, making them stumble and fall. Rose righted herself and searched for a way to escape, she saw a single black wooden door, but it was behind the beast. Just as she was thinking about how to get there, the Doctor kicked it open and ran inside, "Where the hell have you been?!" he didn't answer as he turned to face the cage.

"Oh, that's beautiful!" he murmured as Sir Robert shouted, "Get out! All of you!" he snapped out of it and began ushering everyone out of the cellar. The wolf released one arm, hitting down a side of the cage. No, he was definitely not caged in, Rose thought.

"Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out!" the Doctor cried. Rose grasped his arm, "Come on..." she whispered as they bolted from the room. The Doctor let go of her hand and watched as the beast freed itself completely, a look of glee on his face. He watched as it threw the top of the cage at him, he snapped out of it and ran. He slammed the door shut and sonic-ed it, he had to get to Rose.


	21. Bullets can't Kill a Wild Beast

Bullets can't Kill a Wild Beast

Everyone stopped what they were doing when they heard a howl coming from the cellar. Rose felt the Doctor slip his hand into hers, they looked each other in the eye and ran. The others followed closely behind. Rose watched the exchange of Lady Isobel and Sir Robert and felt for the woman, she didn't want to leave her husband, just like she didn't want to leave the Doctor.

"It could be any form of light modulated species triggered by specific wavelengths. Did it say what it wanted?" the Doctor asked her as he sonic-ed her handcuffs, freeing her from the terrifying time she spent in the cellar.

"The Queen, the Crown, the throne... you name it." she told him shrugging. Their conversation was interrupted by a clanging at the door, Rose looked up at the Doctor, she could see the worry pooling in them, they had to act fast. She followed him as he peered around the corner, down the corridor which led to the cellar. She saw his face go slack and she heard grunting and snarling from the same direction, she really hoped he knew what he was doing. She watched his eyes grow wide as he hurtled around the corner and grabbed her hand, they had to get everyone out of here now. He pulled her to a stop just behind the steward and all the stable boys, who each had a gun and were pointing them, loaded down the hall.

"Fire!" the steward shouted as the werewolf rounded the corner, teeth bared. One bullet hit the wolf squarely on the nose and he stumbled backwards slightly, snarling, "Fire!" he shouted again. Rose flinched and felt the Doctors arm wrap around her, she looked him in the eye and then nestled her head against his chest. They waited for a sign of the wolf as the smoke from the guns, nothing came, but Rose could still feel its presence, she could sense the wolf.

"All right, you men, we should retreat upstairs, come with me." the Doctor said abandoning his disguise of a Scotsman and speaking in his London accent. The steward turned to him, his eyes said no.

"I'll not retreat. The battle's done. There's no creature on God's Earth that could survive such an assault." he spat at the Doctor as if he were mental. That snapped the Doctor.

"I'm telling you, come upstairs!" he shouted at the steward, stomping over to him.

"And I'm telling you, sir, that I will sleep well tonight with that thing's hide upon my wall." he shouted back as he walked around the corner to collect the body. Rose watched the Doctor stand there, his shoulders heaving in annoyance. She knew it wasn't dead and the Doctor probably knew what kind of alien it was by now, so he knew that simple bullets wouldn't be able to kill it. She watched as the steward sauntered back a look of triumph on his face, "Must have crawled away to die-" he started. A claw reached down from the ceiling and yanked him up as if he were a puppet. Rose hide her head on the Doctor's shoulder as the beast devoured the steward.

"There's nothing we can do!" the Doctor growled to everyone as he pushed Rose from the room, she backed away from the room, still unwilling to open her eyes until she was out of it. Sir Robert ran after them, they waited for the other men to follow, but they didn't come, all they heard was the tearing of flesh and yelps. The Doctor looked sadly down at Rose as he grasped her hand and thy ran for the front hall, she could see that he hadn't wanted the steward to be killed, if only he had listened. She watched him sonic the door shut behind him and Queen Victoria came quickly down the stairs.

"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!" Sir Robert called frantically seeing her come down the stairs.

"Sir Robert! What's happening?" the Queen asked, and the Doctor rushed to the other side of the hall, "I heard such terrible noises."

"Your Majesty, we've got to get out. But what of Father Angelo? Is he still here?" Rose noticed Queen Victoria draw in her breath as if she were hiding something. She looked at the stairs then back at Sir Robert, Rose had a feeling she knew who dealt with Father Angelo.

"Captain Reynolds disposed of him." she answered simply. The Doctor came back from examining the main door, "The front door's no good, it's been boarded shut. Pardon me, Your Majesty, you'll have to leg it out of a window." he told her gesturing through the door. Rose stifled her giggles as Queen Victoria held her head high, and Rose followed Sir Robert into the dimly lit room.

"Excuse my manners, Ma'am, but I shall go first, the better to assist Her Majesty's egress." Sir Robert said turning to her Majesty.

"A noble sentiment, my Sir Walter Raleigh." she answered. Rose could tell that the Doctor was getting impatient, he never was incredibly good at waiting.

"Yeah, any chance you could hurry up?" he asked like a school boy waiting for class to be over. Not wanting this to take any longer then it had to, Sir Robert climbed onto the window sill and unlatched the window. Instead of leaning out it he leaned away from it as three monks stationed outside shot at him. Rose couldn't believe it! Why did they worship this wolf thing, did it promise them something, 'cos if it promised them something they would end up being lunch. The Doctor stared wide-eyed at the monks as they reloaded, "I reckon the monkey boys want us to stay inside." he said quietly.**  
**

"Do they know who I am?" Queen Victoria asked, astounded. Rose was fed up with all of this, first 1879 instead of 1979, being locked up, werewolves, and Queen Victoria, who at the moment wasn't getting any of it.

"Yeah, that's why they want ya. The wolf's lined you up for a... a biting." Rose replied quietly, letting it sink into the Queen. Her Majesty just stared at Rose in disbelief and Rose gave herself a mental face palm.

"Now, stop this talk. There can't be an actual wolf." the Queen said, not wanting to believe Rose. As soon as the words had left her mouth a howl sounded from downstairs, everyone whipped towards the door. Rose looked over to the Doctor who took her hand again and they ran into the hallway, where the wolf's claws were starting to break through the Doctor's sonic-ed door.

"What do we do?" she asked him, staring at the claws that were slicing through the wood like butter.

"We... run!" the Doctor sounded unsure, as he stared at the door as well.

"Is that it?!" Rose asked him, there had to be more to the plan then that!

"D'you got any silver bullets?" he asked sarcastically, turning to face her.

"Not on me, no!" she said.

"There we are then, we run. Your Majesty, as a Doctor, I recommend a vigorous jog." he told her Majesty, demonstrating what he meant by jogging a bit in place, "Good for the health. Come on!" he said grabbing the Queen's hand and running up the stairs. Rose wished it had been her hand he had grabbed, but she didn't have time to argue with him now as she sprinted behind him. She heard the wolf break through and start bounding heavily up the stairs, she ran faster, not daring to look down, "Come on! Come on!" he yelled to them, as they reached the top of the stairs and turned the corner and ran down a hallway. Rose looked behind her, the Doctor was still standing at the end of the corridor. She saw the wolf's shadow and then he sprinted towards her, the wolf at his tail. They turned another corner and there was Captain Reynolds, pistol in hand. She and the Doctor ducked just as he fired, hitting the wolf in the chest, making it stumble back. They ducked behind the corner and caught their breath. Rose clasped the right side of her chest which had started to hurt again, why did she have a pain on the opposite side of her heart? The Doctor put his arm around her shoulders and she leaned against him, and closed her eyes tightly before opening them again.

"I'll take this position and hold it. You keep moving, for God's sake!" the captain turned to the Queen, "Your Majesty, I went to look for the property, it was taken. The chest was empty."

"I have it." Queen Victoria breathed. "It's safe." Captain Reynolds smiled and looked down at the pistol in his hand.

"Then remove yourself, Ma'am." now he spoke to the Doctor, "Doctor, you stand as Her Majesty's Protector. And you, Sir Robert, you're a traitor to the crown." he cocked his gun and held it up defiantly.

"Bullets can't stop it!" the Doctor cried with frustration, Rose knew that he thought too many people had died today.

"They'll buy you time. Now, run!" he shouted as he walked into the middle of the corridor with his gun positioned to fire. Rose watched him, grateful and incredibly sad about what he was about to do. She took off running, after the others down the dim passage. She waited outside of the room's open double doors and saw the captain still standing, poised, waiting to protect his Queen. She watched him fire three times and then the wolf was wrestling him, it's jaws snapping and claws tearing at his skin. Rose stumbled back horrified, but transfixed, frozen by the slaughter occurring in front of her. In the distance she heard the Doctor call her name and then his arms were grasping her waist and pushing her into a library. The Doctor slammed the door behind him and he, Sir Robert, and Rose started piling chairs and benches up, creating a barricade.

"Wait a minute, shh, shh, wait a minute, shh..." the Doctor hushed everyone and Rose could hear her heart beat loud and clear as well as the rush of adrenaline in her ears. Quiet howls drifted away, until it was absolutely silent. Rose watched as the Doctor stood on one of the chairs and pressed his ear against the dark wood. She could sense it, right on the other side of the wood, she didn't need to hear it's soft snuffling or slight growl to know it was there, "It's gone." the Doctor said looking her in the eye. Rose turned to face the wolf even before the rest had heard it padding along outside of the room, "Listen..." she said quietly.

"Is this the only door?" the Doctor whispered and Rose felt a sense of dread as Sir Robert thought for a second.

"Yes. No!" he cried, rushing to the other entrance with the Doctor right behind him. Rose watched as the Doctor tossed Sir Robert a chair and then grabbed a spear, and tucked it behind the chair so that it was barring the way. Rose shushed them, waiting for the wolf to make a move, she found it easier to concentrate on the creature when it was silent. They all paused, hearing creaking noises, and a growl, then the sound of something's feet padding away.

"I don't understand. What's stopping it?" she asked, she didn't want to stay in here forever.

"Something inside this room." the Doctor deduced, walking towards her. Sir Robert plopped himself down in an armchair and put his head in his hands, Rose continued to track the wolf, shifting her position every time it moved, "What is it? Why can't it get in?" he asked walking around the room. Rose needed to talk to the Doctor, actually talk to him.

"I'll tell you what, though..." she trailed off, still staring at the spot the wolf had stopped.

"What?" the Doctor asked sounding worried.

"Werewolf...!" she said a smile forming on her full lips. The Doctor grinned back, "I know!" he sounded like a school boy again, which made Rose grin even more, and they laughed, relieved that they were okay. She threw her arms around his neck and he wrapped his arms around his neck, she gave him a quick kiss before they released each other, "You all right?" he asked her seriously, still grinning.

"I'm okay, yeah." she breathed a sigh of relief as the Doctor pulled her into another hug. Rose melted into his arms, relieved that neither of them had been eaten or scratched.

"I'm sorry, Ma'am." Sir Robert confessed, looking at everyone, "It's all my fault. I should've sent you away. I tried to suggest something was wrong, I... thought you might notice. Did you think there was nothing strange about my household staff?"

"Well, they were bald, athletic... your wife's away, I just thought you were happy." the Doctor said nodding his head. Rose saw a chance for her side of the bet, even if made her sound really weird, "I'll tell you what though, Ma'am, I bet you're not amused now." she addressed the Queen seriously.

"Do you think this is funny?" Her Majesty asked angrily. Rose knew she had just stepped over a boundary with that last remark.

"No, Ma'am, I'm sorry." she said in a meek voice.

"What, exactly, I pray someone please, what exactly is that creature?" the Queen asked gravely, her eyes wide. Rose opened her mouth and then closed it, not knowing how to answer, lucky for her the Doctor stepped in, "You'd call it a werewolf, but technically it's a more of a Lupine Wavelength Haemovariform." he said scratching the back of his head. All Rose wanted to do was hide, so that Queen Vicky wouldn't be boring into her soul or simply being her overpowering self.

"And should I trust you, sir? You who change your voice so easily? What happened to your accent?" she asked staring the Doctor down now. His hand slowly left its spot on the back of his head and his mouth opened slightly, if this hadn't been a dire situation, Rose might have laughed at his expression, but now she was focussing on trying to make herself as small as possible mentally, forgetting completely about the wolf.

"Oh... right, um, sorry... that-" he started, but Queen Victoria cut him off and he looked rather taken aback.

"I'll not have it. No, sir, not you... not that thing... none of it." her Majesty held her head higher, "This is not my world." she pronounced coldly. Rose stared at her indignantly before leading the Doctor by the hand over to the opposite side of the library.

"Come on, we've gotta fix this wolf problem fast, old Queen Vicky's givin' me the creeps." Rose hissed, looking at the Queen out of the corner of her eye. The Doctor sighed and rolled his eyes, "Okay, I'll try, but don't forget the bet. If you quit now..." he trailed off. Rose couldn't believe it, he wanted to keep the stupid bet going! May as well, she thought with a roll of her eyes as she grinned with her tongue poking out a bit, "oh, you're still on." she said with a mischievous glint in her eyes. So they shook hands and went their ways, to figure anything out. Rose became engrossed with the barricade, just to pass time.

"Mistletoe... Sir Robert, did you father put that there?" the Doctor asked, his hand resting on a panel of wood with a metal replica of mistletoe hung on it. Rose turned her attention away from the upturned bench, she looked at Sir Robert, who still had his head in his hand, thought for a moment.

"I don't know, I suppose..." he trailed off lost in thought. The Doctor looked at the panel behind Sir Robert's head and Rose could just about see the clockworks in his head spinning full throttle, as he thought out loud, "On the other door, too... a carving wouldn't be enough... I wonder..." he said leaping up from his squatting position and licked the woodwork. Rose couldn't help but think that the Doctor might have lost it once and for all now, 'cos he had done strange things sure, but not this... well... on Christmas with the blood and all, but he had never just gone up to something and licked it. She grimaced slightly, not wanting to think what else he might lick if he were given the time, a giant plastic banana to see if it was real, the TARDIS, a meteorite, hair, the ground... she could keep naming things on and on.

"Viscum album, the oil of the mistletoe, it's been worked into the wood like a varnish! How clever was your dad?! I love him!" he all but shouted, a maniac grin taking over his face. He turned to Rose and started explaining it fully to her, "Powerful stuff, mistletoe. Bursting with lectins and viscotoxins."

"And the wolf's allergic to it?" she was starting to see what he was getting at, if the walls were worked with mistletoe oil and the wolf thought it was allergic to it then it wouldn't dare enter the room! It was brilliant!

"Well, it thinks it is. The monkey monk monks need a way of controlling the wolf, maybe they trained it to react against certain things." he said and Rose could see the glee shining in his eyes.

"Nevertheless, that creature won't give up, Doctor, and we still don't possess an actual weapon." Sir Robert pointed out, that took all the glee out of the Doctor's eyes right then and there.

"Oh, your father got all the brains, didn't he?" he asked sharply and Rose sighed as Sir Robert shifted uncomfortably in his chair.

"Being rude again." Rose told the Doctor tiredly, nodding and smiling sarcastically, he gave her a pointed look, "Good, I meant that one." he said walking over to the bookcase as Rose rolled her eyes, "You want weapons? We're in a library. Books! Best weapons in the world." he pulled out his glasses and slipped them on and Rose had to concentrate hard not to start having naughty thoughts about those glasses, "This room's the greatest arsenal we could have." he said with a perfectly calm voice. He pulled out a few of the old tomes and chucked them to Rose, she was glad she had been paying attention now, as the books slammed her in the chest, knocking the breath out of her, "Arm yourselves." he with the same tone in his voice.


	22. Where's the Wolf?

**Author's Note: **Sorry, I didn't post this very quickly, I was on an all school camping trip and there wasn't electricity or computers... so no way to put this up... And the school year just started today... so homework is gonna slow down the updates. Thanks to all that have reviewed! It's been very helpful in deciding how the story will go.

Where's the Wolf Got to?

Rose, Sir Robert, and the Doctor had been frantically pouring over pages, scanning and spewing any of the information they thought might help before flipping further into the book or tossing it aside and picking up a new one. The tome she held in her hand was full of ologies, but nothing to do with Lupine Wavewhats Haemesomethings, "Biology, zoology... there might be something on wolves in here..." she muttered to herself.

"Hold on, what about this?" the Doctor asked her, dropping the book down to her. Sir Robert was babbling as well, "... some form of explosive..." Rose looked through the index of this, Alpine wolves, Arctic Wolves, Grey Wolves, lots about wolves, but not werewolves. Ugh, this was so frustrating! She was flipping trough the pages, "... also known as..." but the Doctor had off the ladder,meaning he had probably found something, "Hmm, that's the sort of thing. Ooh..." he muttered as he bounded over to the desk. Rose and Sir Robert followed, volumes still tucked beneath their arms, "Look what your old dad found. Something fell to Earth." he said looking at the illustration of a shooting star falling into a valley with a building standing not far from it.

"A spaceship?" Rose asked, saying the first thing that came to her mind.

"A shooting star." Sir Robert said quietly as he began to read out loud, "'In the year of our Lord, 1540, under the reign of King James the Fifth, an almighty fire did burn in the pit.' That's the Glen of Saint Catherine just by the Monastery."

"But that's over three hundred years ago. What's it been waiting for?" Rose asked, not quite clear on why it had taken so long, usually an alien would just invade immediately if they weren't friendly.

"Maybe just a single cell survived. Adapting slowly down the generations. It survived through the humans. Host after host after host." the Doctor said looking at her, thinking out loud again, the idea of person after person being used sent shivers up her back.

"But why does it want the throne?" Sir Robert asked. Rose thought for a moment and then it clicked.

"That's what it wants. It said so, the... the Empire of the Wolf." she exclaimed, still clasping a book to her chest.

"Imagine it... the Victorian Age accelerated... starships and missiles fueled by coal and driven by steam... leaving history devastated in its wake..." Rose was terrified now, if they let the wolf get Queen Victoria then they were all done for, and Rose would not die in 1879. The very woman they were keen to protect spoke up, "Sir Robert!" she called standing up and he walked over to her as she continued, "If I am to die here-" she started.

"Don't say that, Your Majesty." Sir Robert cut in, not wanting his sovereign to talk of death. She ignored him, "I would destroy myself rather than let that creature infect me. But that's no matter. I ask only that you find some place of safekeeping for something far older and more precious than myself." Queen Victoria unclasped her black purse and started to rummage through it. Rose smiled sadly at how brave this woman was.

"Hardly the time to worry about your valuables." the Doctor said rudely, looking up from the book, not moving from the table. Rose elbowed him in the ribs and he scowled at her. Queen Victoria looked at him with a slight frown on her face.

"Thank you for your opinion. But there is nothing more valuable than this." she said reaching into the open bag again and bringing out an enormous stone in the palm of her hand. Rose realized that she holding in her breath for the last-minute or so and let it out, then she recognized the gem, "Is that the Koh-i-noor?" she asked, pointing and staring at it as she and the Doctor crept forward, itching to check it out.

"Oh, yes..." the Doctor said, his eyes transfixed. Rose watched as a possessive expression came across the Queen's face and she smirked. "The greatest diamond in the world." he continued, as he and Rose stepped ever closer.

"Given to me as the spoils of war. Perhaps its legend is now coming true. It is said that whoever owns it must surely die." Rose felt something uneasy as she heard Victoria utter the words.

"Well, that's true of anything if you own it long enough." the Doctor murmured and Rose tried to contain her giggles, "Can I...?" he asked, reaching toward the diamond. Rose could feel the tension from Queen Victoria as she contemplated whether or not she should hand over the stone. Rose knew that the Doctor would win, he always did. Her Majesty reluctantly placed it in his hand and Rose smiled knowingly as she watched the Doctor slide his specs down his nose. She ran her finger along its edge and couldn't help but smile even more.

"That is so beautiful." he whispered, turning it ever so slightly this way and that. Rose couldn't help but ask this question, well almost everyone wanted to know, "How much is that worth?"

"They say... the wages of the entire planet for a whole week." the Doctor said smiling himself. Rose leaned closer to it and immediately the image of her mum peering over some display cases at Henrik's popped into her head, she giggled to her self before telling the Doctor, "Good job my mum's not here. She'd be fighting the wolf off with her bare hands for that thing." He mum seemed to be an on going joke between the two of them.

"And she'd win." the Doctor replied, grinning broadly. Rose giggled again and reached out to touch the gem again.

"Where is the wolf?" Sir Robert interrupted their joke, walking to opposite side of the room, looking around nervously, "I don't trust this silence." Rose tensed, the wolf, she had forgotten all about it, where the hell could it have gotten to? She searched with her mind, seeking another wolf, seeking the one that burned under the moon, not the sun. Where could it be? She sighed inwardly, she didn't know how to make Bad Wolf work, it just did, she couldn't use it anymore then it already had let her.

"Why do you travel with it?" the Doctor hadn't paid any attention to Sir Robert and this worried Rose, it wasn't like him to ignore something like that.

"My annual pilgrimage." Rose looked up at Queen Victoria, she was sure she had learned something about Koh-i-noor being cut, but couldn't remember if this had anything to do with this, "I'm taking it to Helier and Carew. The Royal Jewellers at Hazelhead. The stone needs recutting." Rose smiled to herself, she had been right about the cuttings, but she didn't understand why it needed to be cut down anymore, it was gorgeous!

"Oh, but it's perfect." she cooed, stroking it with one of her fingers again. Queen Victoria smiled fondly at her as she told her story to Rose, "My late husband never thought so." the smile disappeared and was replaced by a small, sad frown.

"Now, there's a fact, Prince Albert kept on having the Koh-i-noor cut down. It used to be forty percent bigger than this. But he was never happy. Kept on cutting and cutting." the Doctor said looking at Rose, down his nose as he removed his glasses, she glanced up at him and then back at the diamond. For some reason it seemed to draw her to it, she couldn't tell how it was different from any other stone, but somehow she was attracted to it like a paperclip is to a magnet. Something inside her was trying to latch on to it.

"He always said... the shine was not quite right." This caught the attention of Rose and the Doctor and both their heads snapped up, "But he died with it still unfinished." her Majesty said softly, looking at their feet, lost in memories, before looking at their faces. They stared at her, the word unfinished echoed around her head, it clearly meant something important... She could tell the Doctor was thinking the same thing as he muttered, "Unfinished..." Then looked back and forth between Queen Victoria and the Koh-i-noor, "Oh, yes!" He tossed the diamond back to the Queen as his face lit up. Rose watched as he backed up before shifting towards the Queen again, "There's a lot of unfinished business in this house. His father's research, your husband, Ma'am, he came here and he sought the perfect diamond, hold on, hold on..." Rose watched as he ran his fingers through his hair violently, making it stand up straight. Rose couldn't help the small smile creep onto her face as she watched him dance about, working it out, her tongue poking out the corner of her mouth._ "__A_ll these separate things, they're not separate at all, they're connected! Oh, my head, my head!" he wrapped his arms around his head as he raked and gripped his hair again, "What if, this house, it's a trap for you, is that right, Ma'am?"

"Obviously." she said quietly. Rose could tell he was bristling with ideas, just waiting for them all to spill out.

"At least, that's what the wolf intended. But! What if there's a trap inside the trap?" He spewed in rapid fire, barely able to keep his tongue from running away. Rose understood what he meant immediately and her grin grew.

"Explain yourself, Doctor." Queen Victoria said with a completely straight face.

"What if his father and your husband weren't just telling each other stories. They dared to imagine all this was true. And they planned against it. Laying the real trap not for you... but for the wolf." he said in an excited hissing whisper. Rose watched fondly over the books she was holding to her chest, as a fine sprinkling fell on the Doctor's nose. They all looked up and Rose could feel the wolf strongly now, it was padded softly across a large domed window, looking down at them and it growled softly, "That wolf there…" the Doctor murmured. Rose watched as the beast dug carefully into the glass with it's back right paw. She stared at the intricate spiderweb of cracks grew and she jolted back to reality at the sound of her Doctor's voice, "Out! Out! Out!" she dropped her books and sprinted to the blocked off door. They pushed and pulled everything away from the double doors as the werewolf came crashing down. She pushed past Sir Robert and waited for a moment as the Doctor pulled the doors shut behind him, before taking off again.

"Gotta get to the observatory!" she heard him call as he sprinted behind her. She saw the Doctor fly past her and knew that the wolf was right behind her before she even turned, she let out a scream. The wolf drew its arm back, ready to rake Rose across her face. She dropped to the floor and curled herself into a ball and squeezing her eyes shut. She listened, and heard a splash and then a roar, and she screamed again as she scrambled up to see Lady Isobel, panting with an empty pot in her hands. The wolf creeped away down the hall and out of sight, batting at its face, growling angrily.

"Good shot!" the Doctor said, with an awed look on his face, before rushing down the hall, the way the wolf had gone.

"It was mistletoe!" Flora piped up from behind Lady Isobel.

"Isobel!" Sir Robert said before wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing her. Rose smiled as she ran after the Doctor and peered around the corner, checking to see if it was clear, "Get back downstairs." he said gently, grasping her hands.

"Keep yourself safe." she said pleading with her eyes. Rose watched as he looked at his wife for a moment before kissing her again, "Now go." he told her and she stumbled away, looking back at him, followed by all of the maids, "Girls, come with me. Down the back stairs, back to the kitchen. Quickly!" she ordered as they hurried down the hall. Rose could see the light in Sir Roberts eyes, it wasn't a happy one, rather it was a sad one, one that questioned something.

"Come on!" the Doctor said, grabbing Sir Robert by the arm and running past Queen Victoria, "The observatory's this way!" Rose followed behind him, she glanced over her shoulder one last time, the wolf's essence was hiding again, before following the others around the bend and up the stairs. They ran up two flights and Rose could feel the wolf again, she heard a growl in the distance, they had to hurry, otherwise she knew that the Doctor's plan, whatever it was, wouldn't work.

They burst into the observatory and the Doctor immediately turned to them, "No mistletoe on these doors, your father wanted the wolf to get inside! Get inside, I just need time! Is there any way of barricading this?!" he asked Sir Robert as he grasped the two small doors.

"Just do your work and I'll defend it." Sir Robert said, looking at him and Rose with a sad smile.

"If we could just bind them shut with rope or something!" the Doctor cried, ignoring Sir Robert's suggestion.

"I said I'd find you time, sir." Rose now knew why he had looked so sadly after Isobel, why he had been so restless in the library, he had been preparing himself to face the wolf the entire time. She frowned and knew that he wouldn't stop the wolf, that he may as well have been an ant, "Now get inside." he said quietly, looking at the ground. Rose watched the two men look at each other and knew that the Doctor was going to let him, that he had seen part of his timeline and saw it ending now, she stared at Sir Robert, she couldn't believe that he was doing this, he shouldn't.

"Good man." the Doctor said finally, before Sir Robert turned and the Doctor closed the doors as he walked over to her Majesty. Rose was left staring at the two black doors, the frown still firmly placed on her mouth, "Your Majesty, the diamond." the Doctor held out his hand and Queen Victoria looked at him, disconcerted. Rose turned to face the two of them.

"For what purpose?" the Queen asked, her right hand resting over her heart, as she breathed heavily.

"For the purpose it was designed for." he insisted, thrusting his hand out again. How could he this, Rose wondered, How can he agree to send a nice man to his death, and then act as if nothing happened? She heard the lock click and Rose knew that Sir Robert wouldn't stand a chance against the wolf, only if you had a silver bullet or the means of the telescope and the diamond. She heard a sword being drawn and she held her breath, she could feel the wolf, it was bounding up, approaching them swiftly.

Queen Victoria pulled the Koh-i-noor out of her bag again passed it to the Doctor's waiting fingers.

"Rose!" he called as he headed to the wheel that sat next to the telescope. She ran to him and he grasped his arm around it, pulling, "Lift it! Come on!" he said hurriedly and she pushed up on the handles, it was a lot harder then she thought it would be.

"Not exactly the right time for star gazing." she said sarcastically through her teeth. She could see that the Doctor was struggling as well.

"Yes, it is." he gritted his teeth in annoyance. Rose could hear the growls outside the door now, and what sounded like metal clanging on metal and screams, she knew what was happening and didn't want to think about it at all. She glanced nervously over her shoulder, Queen Victoria was stock still, holding her crucifix up to the door. Why were they lining the telescope up anyway? Had the Doctor finally lost it?

"You said this thing doesn't work!" she whined. He looked her in the eye as they continued to move the wheel, "It doesn't work as a telescope because that's not what it is! It's a light chamber! It magnifies the light rays like a weapon. We've just got to power it up!" he told her rapidly, the vein in the side of his neck popping out.

"But there's no electricity!" she cried, stating the obvious. He grunted and looked at the telescope, light chamber thing. She followed his gaze and a flash of gold shot through her head, she knew what he was talking about now, "Moonlight! But it needs moonlight! It's made by moonlight!"

"You're seventy percent water but you can still drown. Come on!" he shot back, shouting the last command. They put all their strength into making the wheel turn, aligning the telescope with the moon, slowly, but surely. A thin trickle of moonlight dripped to puddle on the floor, seeing this the Doctor shouted again, "Come on!"

Rose was breathing heavily now, her endurance had increased greatly recently, but this was incredibly strenuous. A buzzing noise came and the telescope shook as it exploded with light, a ray of moonlight landing in a perfect circle on the floor. Rose and the Doctor took a step back, watching the instrument get used for what it was meant to do. A claw raked through the door, and the wolf came crashing in, it locked its focus on the Queen, approaching her, claw drawn back, ready to strike. Rose watched as the Doctor skillfully dove, skipping the gem into position, a beam of white light encased the wolf, as it swiped down with its claw howling. The beast was lifted slowly, and Rose couldn't help but be reminded of _Beauty and the Beast, _and hung there, arms outstretched, head tilted up. Her eyes were blinking rapidly, the light harsh against them, blindingly bright, but not as bright as the flash that accompanied the beast burning back into his host's form.

"Make it brighter. Let me go." the host spoke quietly, looking at the Doctor. Rose snapped out of her hypnotized state and watched as the Doctor crossed too the light chamber and flick a switch sadly. She looked back at the glowing figure who morphed back to a wolf, howling once more, before disappearing as the moon moved further through the sky. She let out the breath she hadn't realized she was holding and raised her hand over her mouth.

"Your Majesty? Did it bite you?" Rose looked up from the ground just in time to see Queen Victoria tracing a wound on her wrist. The Doctor looked back t her, a worried expression on his face.

"No, it's... it's a cut." she answered quickly, stroking it again.

"If that thing bit you…" he trailed off as he walked towards her Majesty.

"It was a splinter of wood when the door came apart." she answered, still not looking up from the scratch on her wrist.

"Let me see?" he asked reaching his hand out. Queen Victoria immediately snapped her hand down and walked backwards, staring straight at the Doctor, "It is nothing." she insisted. He looked at her suspiciously and raised one eyebrow at Rose, she shrugged, she was too tired to figure it out. She yawned and meant to close her eyes for one second, but ended up falling asleep, and she started to slip to the ground. The Doctor bounded over and caught her in his arms, hoisting her up, one arm under her knee and one supporting her back, with her head resting under his chin.

"Um, I think we may need to find somewhere for Rose to sleep, Ma'am." he said softly gazing down at his sleeping Rose. She tilted her head in question, but shrugged, "Yes I think we shall." she said simply and she walked out of the room, leaving the Doctor with Rose bundled up in his arms.


	23. We Are Not Amused

We are not Amused

_"We are _not_ amused!" Queen Victoria stated looking coldly down her button nose. Rose shivered as the words echoed along the cave walls, she looked around, she couldn't see anyone, but her Majesty, though even she was growing faint and then she was __just _gone.

_"Doctor?" she called out, her words being repeated back to her. She spun around slowly, looking everywhere. Once she had gotten to her original point, she yelled again, "Doctor!" Something fell, it sounded like a stone being dropped on a boulder, "Who's that knockin' about?" she cried. This was reminding her more and more of the time she met the Doctor. She whipped around to the direction the sound had come from, nothing._

_"Oh... poor little Rosie... all alone... with no one to protect her!" came the Doctor's voice, and out he stepped, wearing a long green coat over a multi-colored suit and a TARDIS blue top hat, he smirked at her and gave a mock bow._

_"Who the hell are you?!" she cried, this was most certainly not her Doctor, her Doctor, wore a brown pinstripe suit with a long brown coat and he always wore a __tie. He walked slowly closer, his hands in his pockets, he seemed to be toying with her._

_"_I'm _the Doctor." he leered at her. Rose blushed and looked around again, looking for a way out._

_"No, you're _not_. The Doctor is nothing like you, I've known him for over a year, and never, _never, _has he acted like you have." she spat back, jeering. He abnoxiously pretended talk, forming his hands into mouths and making them "talk" while he rolled his eyes._

_"Uuugghhh!" he groaned, a malicious grin spreading across his face, "You really aren't very trusting are you? And who's to say this new regeneration isn't me?" he asked waggling his eyebrows at her. Rose blushed again, she just could feel that this wasn't the Doctor, it wasn't her Doctor._

_"I know him! You just aren't him! You can't be him! I would be able to tell..." she trailed off how was she able to tell? She contemplated it, almost getting something._

_"You so sure?" the man asked her crudely. She was torn from her thoughts and she nodded confidently. She closed her eyes, trying to catch her thoughts from before, when she was grabbed and the man ground his lips against hers, she tried to pull away, but he was holding her in a tight grip, she couldn't budge. _

~oOo~

Rose woke with a start, to see the Doctor's eyes staring at her. Her head was pounding and the right side of her chest hurt even more then before. She focused on breathing, in and out, in and out.

"What?" she managed to squeak. A slight frown was playing on his lips and his brow was furrowed. She tried to sit up, but he pushed her back down, and whipped out the sonic, "What is it?" she demanded. He stopped for a second and stared at her.

"Have you been having nightmares recently?" he asked, his head cocked to the side. Now it was her turn to stare, "How'd you know?" she asked suspiciously. Had he been rummaging around her brain again? The first time had been enough, she didn't want him to be shuffling about in there without permission.

"You were restless and you were moaning stuff about "You aren't him! and NOOOO and get away from me... What were you dreaming about is what I want to know..." he trailed off staring at her again, one eyebrow raised. She groaned, shaking her head as she dropped it into her head and rubbed her eyes thoroughly. "Or you can just say good morning..." he said softly, wrapping his arms around her. Rose melted into his arms and sighed, why was sleeping getting so difficult? And why did the right side of her chest always hurt? It had felt as if something were forcing its way in, ripping apart tissue that was there and filling in the gap. They stayed that way, Rose wrapped up in the Doctor until someone knocked in the door and Flora's head popped out.

"Oh! Sorry, I'm so sorry Miss, Doctor! I'll be leavin' now, sorry for interruptin' you!" Flora said hurriedly, her cheeks flushing bright red. Rose grinned at her, Victorians could be so silly sometimes.

"Don't go Flora." she said, trying not to laugh, "You didn't interrupt anything." she smiled up at the Doctor who kissed the top of her head and smiled back. They looked back over at Flora, who's mouth was slightly open and was staring at them, her eyes wide. Rose guessed that she had never seen anybody be kissed aside from babies or when Sir Robert had kissed Lady Isobel, but that was because they might never see each other again.

"What?" Rose asked, still grinning madly. Flora shook her head and opened her mouth and then closed it, her blush traveling to the tips of her ears as well.

"Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, has called you to the drawing room..." she trailed off, her blush reddening as the Doctor rested his head on the top of Rose's bleached, blonde, crown. He looked down at Rose, a cheshire grin taking over his face. She smiled as he said softly with a twinkle in his eye, "Ah, well, I wonder what she'll be wanting then." Rose groaned softly as he took his arms from around her waist and slid of the bed stiffly. He offered his hand and she hoisted her tired body off the bed as well, "Come on then! I wonder what ol' Queen Vicky has to say." he told her.

"Best not call her "ol' Queen Vicky" when she's around though, yeah?" she asked him in mock seriousness. They giggled, before remembering the now beet red Flora, standing in the doorway, "Right..." Rose trailed off, "We'll be comin' now..." she told Flora before grinning up at the Doctor. She grasped his hands in hers, slipping her fingers through his. He squeezed her hand and she looked up at him, Rose was so grateful that neither of them had been caught by the wolf.

The two of them slogged down the stairs and into the drawing room, releasing each others hands as not to make everyone else think they were nutters, though most of them probably already thought that. Rose sighed and threw on a smile, as they walked to stand in front of Flora, who had joined the other maids and was looking anywhere but them. Queen Victoria was holding a sword, though one that looked rather dull, in her now bandaged, right hand.

"Come forward." she told them strictly, "And kneel." They did as they were told, both looking at each other and grinning as they kneeled down, "By the power invested in me by the Church and the State, I dub thee: Sir Doctor of TARDIS." the Queen said as she tapped the weapon on both of the Doctor's shoulders, knighting him, "By the power invested in me by the Church and the State, I dub thee: Dame Rose of the Powell Estate. You may stand." Rose couldn't help blushing as she was Damed, never, _never_ had she thought this would happen on one of their adventures. She and the Doctor stood slowly, thoughts coursing through Rose's mind.

"Many thanks, Ma'am." the Doctor said, and Rose agreed wholeheartedly.

"Thanks! They're never going to believe this back home." she said grinning uncontrollably. Her mum and Mickey were definitely not going to believe this! She was a _Dame_, now if Jackie told her to stop being a lazy bum and to shift she could whip out the, "but _I'm _a _Dame_" trick.

"Your Majesty, you said last night about receiving a message from the great beyond; I think your husband cut that diamond to save your life. He's protecting you even now Ma'am, even from beyond the grave." the Doctor said solemnly. Queen Victoria studied him for a moment before continuing, "Indeed. Then you may think on this, also : that I am _not_ amused." As soon as the words passed from the Queen's lips the Doctor groaned playfully and Rose happily said, "Yes!" she had bested the Doctor in a bet!

"Not remotely amused." Her Majesty continued and Rose tried to wipe the smirk from her face, "And henceforth... I banish you." Rose tried to let the words she had just heard sink in, but they just wouldn't. She was banished from England, but that would mean she wouldn't be able to go back home, she wouldn't be able to see her family... but that was the future, maybe it didn't count in the future.

"I'm sorry...?" the Doctor asked, saying the words that wouldn't form in Rose's mouth.

"I rewarded you, Sir Doctor. And now you are exiled from this empire, never to return." Why was she exiling them? They had just saved her life! Rose thought about it, the cut, it had to be the cut, it had to be the wolf. She reached out with her own wolf and did feel another presence that wasn't quite there, something that was still growing. Her Majesty continued angrily, "I don't know what you are, the two of you, or where you're from, but I know that you consort with stars, and magic, and think it fun." Oh... she thinks we're aliens... Rose said to herself, well she was right about the Doctor, but Rose didn't know what she was, if she was still human or if she was some weird mutation of sorts. "But your world is steeped in terror and blasphemy and death and I will not allow it! You will leave this shores and you will reflect, I hope, on how you managed to stray so far from all that is good. And how much longer you will survive this... terrible life." the Queen finished staring coldly in turn at each of them. Rose shuddered slightly and looked down, she was thoroughly reminded of when Blon Fel Fotch had challenged them to look her in the eye. She watched as Queen Victoria stepped back swiftly.

"Now leave my world! And never return." she commanded, the steel still in her voice. Rose stumbled backward, and she and the Doctor made their farewells as quickly as they could.

"Goodbye Flora, I hope that things get better around here..." Rose said softly. Flora nodded and reluctantly gave her a quick hug. The Doctor had already finished saying goodbye, and he was waiting for her as she approached Lady Isobel, who was staring, grief in her blue eyes, at the floor.

"Lady Isobel..." Rose trailed off, taking a deep breath in, "Lady Isobel, I just wanted to tell you-"

"What did you do to him?" her Ladyship cut in so softly that Rose almost missed it, "What did you do to my husband?" she asked again, looking Rose straight in the eye.

"I-I... I didn't do anything your Ladyship, I didn't want him to go out of the observatory! It's just that he..." she trailed off, Lady Isobel thought she had led her husband to his death, that she had lured him in and then killed him, "Lady Isobel, I did nothing to your husband! What he did, he did of his own accord." she stared back at Lady Isobel, who had started to cry, softly at first, then louder, and the woman threw herself at Rose, "You killed him! It was you wasn't it?! You killed my husband!" she screamed at her, yanking at Rose's hair, and trying to scratch her face, "You killed him!" she screamed again as Flora and the other maids pulled her from Rose.

Rose scurried to the Doctor, who wrapped his arms around her protectively and shot the Oncoming Storm at Lady Isobel and she coward.

"You all right?" he whispered into her hair. She nodded her head and after a moments hesitation shook it firmly before whispering back, "I dunno..." His arms tightened around her waist and she sighed, something bad always seemed to happen to her since the Doctor had regenerated, first he had dropped down unconscious, leaving her alone, at Felspoon she had almost fallen off one of the mountains, on Barcelona one of the dogs started following her around and she ended up hiding on the roof of building, Cassandra had taken over her body, and now she had been banished and attacked. Things were looking to be brilliant.

He took her hand and they walked quickly out of Torchwood House, hopefully never having to go there again.

~oOo~

The two of them had been walking for about an hour now, the endless waves of tall yellow grass glowed gold in the still rising sunlight. Rose hadn't seen a living thing since they had left Torchwood House aside from a bunny that had hopped across the road in front of them. All around her in the distance were dusky mountains, standing in as a backdrop for the plains. She closed her eyes and just breathed in and out, the events of the past twelve hours coursing through her mind. How the wolf had captivated her mind, drawing her in, making her unable to move, if the Doctor hadn't pulled her out of the hall she probably wouldn't be alive. She gulped at the thought and squeezed his hand tighter.

"Woah." they heard a voice call out over the rattling of wooden wheels. Rose looked over her shoulder, a farmer sat slumped down on the bench of a cart filled with hay, "Do you two need a lift?" the man said in Scottish accent, "My names Dougal by the way."

"Would you give us a lift?" the Doctor asked and Dougal nodded and he continued, "I'm the Doctor and this is Rose." she waved and the farmer smiled, "Yeah are you headed that way for about two miles or so?" he asked. Dougal nodded again, his brow furrowing in confusion, "Yes, I am, but why? There's nothin' but fields for miles, why d'you wanna go there?" He asked, shaking his head. The Doctor opened and closed his mouth a few times trying to figure out what to say, Rose giggled and spoke for him.

"There's this blue box we've gotta get to, yeah? And well... it's a long story..." she concluded, not quite sure how to continue. The Doctor nodded his head vigorously and shoved his hands deep into his bigger on the inside pockets.

"All right, get yourselves settled." Dougal said after a few minutes of just staring at them, one eyebrow raised. Rose grinned and clambered around the cart to the back and hopped up, settling herself in the soft hay. The Doctor landed next to her, and put one hand beneath his head and slid the other into Rose's fingers and looked her in the eye with a slight smile tugging at his lips.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing..." he trilled. She gave him a pointed look and he gave an exasperated sigh, "It's just, you should have seen your face when the wolf was attacking Captain Reynolds!" he imitated her, eyes wide, mouth slightly open. She giggled and slapped him playfully on the arm.

"I did not!" she protested.

"But you did..." he grinned, waggling his eyebrows at her.

"I don't know what came over me then..." she admitted. He made the face again and she collapsed into a fit if giggles as he pulled her into a hug and they laughed together, "It's like I was hypnotized, but I'm not sure what it was that put me in a trance." she continued. The Doctor had stopped grinning and was looking at her intently.

"What do you mean "in a trance"?" he asked, whipping out the sonic and scanning her thoroughly, "Hmm... nothing weird with the readings..." he muttered.

"I dunno, I was just kind of... glued to it almost, like I couldn't look away..." she tried to explain. They sat in silence until they heard Dougal's voice sound again, "Woah!" he said as the cart rolled slowly to a halt and the two of them hopped down, the Doctor first, followed by Rose.

"Cheers Dougal!" the Doctor called, waving as the cart started off again. He quickly changed the subject from the one they were discussing on the ride, "You know, the funny thing is, Queen Victoria did actually suffer a mutation of the blood ! It's historical record haemophiliac. It used to be called the Royal Disease! But it's always been a mystery because she didn't inherit it. Her mum didn't have it her dad didn't have it, it came from nowhere!" she looked at him and tucked her hair behind her ear.

"What, and you're saying that's a wolf bite?" she said slowly, still a bit shaken from what she had told the Doctor.

"Well, maybe Haemophilia is just a Victorian euphemism." he babbled, his mouth traveling a hundred miles per hour. She stared at him for a second, "For werewolf?" she asked, not quite believing what he was saying. He looked at her, "Could be!" he answered. Rose stared at him a little longer and could feel a smile nudging the corners of her mouth up, "Queen Victoria's a werewolf?" she asked him. He looked down at the trampled grass in front of him.

"Could be!" he looked back at her a grin spread across his face, "And, her children had the Royal Disease. Maybe she gave them a quick nip." he joked. A disbelieving laugh escaped her lips, "So, the Royal Family are werewolves?"

"Well… maybe not yet. I mean, a single wolf cell could take... a hundred years to mature... might be ready by… oooh… early 21st century...?" he guessed purposefully, looking at her as she grinned.

"Nah! That's just ridiculous! Mind you… Princess Anne..." she trailed off, wondering if the royal family was in fact werewolves, she grimaced as the Doctor replied, "I'll say no more." and with that he looked back at the ground as they marched toward the awaiting box in question.

"And if you think about it..." she giggled at the thought, "They're very private. They plan everything in advance. They, they could schedule themselves around the moon, we'd never know!" by now the Doctor was sniggering as he unlocked the doors and pushed them open and they piled in, "They like hunting! They love blood sports!" this had the Doctor laughing loudly, "Oh my God, they're werewolves!" and they both cracked up as the TARDIS dematerialized and the Doctor howled jokingly. Rose collapsed on the jump seat, clutching at the stitch that had started to form in her side. Tears had started to trickle down her cheeks as the two of them continued to be doubled over, trying to breath as each and every chortle escaped them. Finally Rose managed to hold the laughter down and the Doctor did as well.

"Wow." she said, "That's just... they really are werewolves aren't they?"she asked, and he nodded, "That's just kinda weird..." she muttered staring off into space.

"So, this make you want to see a documentary on wolves?" the Doctor asked, a grin taking over again, she raised her eyebrows, "You have got to be kidding me..." he waggled his eyebrows at her and she threw her arms around him. Rose could feel him laughing silently as he pulled something out of one of his pockets and held it above her head. She looked up and say a small sprig of mistletoe, Rose sighed and rolled her eyes,"You know, I'm really not amused now." she muttered before pulling him down into a kiss.


	24. Boyfriends?

**Author's Note:** This chapter ended up being longer then I thought it would be. Also long story short I couldn't sleep and I have a bad cold and this is what I did for most of the time I was up... I'm also _really_ sorry I haven't updated for a while, I had a bit of writer's block and a new kitten and homework are now taking up my time... So if the next update doesn't come for a while, _please_ don't be mad, please.

**Disclaimer:** Not yet... someday? Maybe?

School Reunion

Boyfriends?

Yellow potato mash slopped out of the ladle with a splat. Rose sighed as the line of children moved past her with the occasional teacher or two and she served mash, again and again. A familiar, spiky, brown, mop of hair shuffled toward her, she let the gunk fall onto the tray, same as ever, but she scowled at its owner, who grinned back cheerily, waggling their fingers. It was the Doctor's fault that she was stuck as a dinner lady, scooping mash and putting chips in the oven. It was his fault that she was wearing the white uniform with its blue apron and clogs. She had been stuck in the kitchen for a few hours now, not allowed out of it by the head cook, while the Doctor had fun teaching physics. She thought back to the day that had lead up to it, it had all been hugs and kisses from her mum and bad jokes from Mickey.

oO*Oo

_Rose had been watching the Doctor attempt to fix the chameleon circuit for over three hours now and she was getting kind of bored of being in the console room doing nothing except for making tea now and again._

_"Doctor." she said finally, "Doctooor. Doctor. Doctor!" he jumped when she shouted and bumped his head hard on the console, "What?!" he snapped, holding a hand to the back of his head._

_"Could we go somewhere? I'm gettin' bored of watching you tinker with the TARDIS." she whined, "Could I visit mum and Mickey?"_

_"Fine." he said before breaking into a grin and she did the same, there was nothing better than traveling, "Just, please, don't let her make dinner!" he whined. Her smile grew and she shook her head. He pulled a switch and danced to the other side of the console and whacked a button, Rose couldn't help but laugh as the Doctor continued his happy dance all the way to her._

_"May I have this dance, Dame Rose?" he asked in an over exaggerated serious voice, waggling his eyebrows and holding out his hand. She giggled, "Of course, Sir Doctor, I'd love to." she replied in a mock posh accent, taking his hand and executing a petite curtsey. Somewhere in the room Moonlight Serenade played softly, and the two waltzed slowly around the console, Rose rested her head on the Doctor's shoulder and he kissed her crown sweetly as they swayed in time to the music. Rose looked up into his eyes and saw the half-smile playing across his lips and smiled herself and she stood on her tip toes and kissed him, "Of course this song had to play." she whispered into his ear. Suddenly his arms were wrapped around her waist and hers were draped around his neck and he was snogging her forcefully. Rose kissed back, pressing her lips hard against his, not wanting to let go. All movements that looked anything like a dance had stopped and were replaced by wandering hands and the sound of lips meeting and pulling apart. He walked her backwards until she was pressed up against the console. She slipped up, onto the ledge and wrapped one leg around his waist, pulling the Doctor roughly to her as the kiss escalated. Rose finally pulled away and just grinned at him and held onto him, and slipped back off the ledge, hugging him._

_"I love you." she whispered and the Doctor pulled back, clearly surprised. She giggled, "What, was it not very obvious?"_

_"N-n-no, not that..." he stammered, his chocolaty eyes staring into hers, "It's just I..." he trailed off, unable to continue._

_"What?" Rose asked, her heart was pounding, what was he going to say? He shook his head, staring through the grated floor._

_"I-I-I..." he started, but the words wouldn't come so he settled on something else, "You know, it's hard for me to think of you as a... a... girlfriend..." he saw the disappointment appear on her face and hurriedly explained, "Not, not that way." his arms flew about him at a hundred miles per hour. Rose giggled at the sight, but couldn't help it as her lips slid downward and her heart sunk into her stomach._

_"Then h-how?" her voice faltered as she backed away from him, she knew her eyes were growing foggy and she didn't want him to see it, "Then what do you think of me as?" she asked again, her voice steady this time. She watched as he shuffled his feet and looked any where but her, she felt her heart float even lower._

_"W-well. I... I... I..." his eyes glanced into hers for a second, "I just can't say." he told her after a long pause._

_"If it makes you feel any better, it's weird to think of you as a boyfriend... it just doesn't seem like the right... word..." Rose mused, mulling over the thought herself. She looked up at the Doctor who had a slight frown on his face, his eyes brimming with worry, she gave him a slight smile, "I mean, you're the Doctor."_

_"I suppose you're right. You aren't a girlfriend. You're a Rose, something much better than a girlfriend. And, you're my Rose." he whispered into her ear, his warm breath sending shivers up and down Rose's spine as her breath hitched. He had to say it, he had to, if he didn't do it now he didn't know when he would. The Doctor braced himself and breathed in deeply, "Iloveyou!" he shot out quietly, hoping she'd understood him._

_"What? What'd you say?" he stared into her hazel eyes before squeezing his own shut and biting his lip. He grasped her arms lightly, steadying himself._

_"I... I... I love you..." he gasped out. Rose's grin slid off her face and he dropped his hands from her arms, "Say something, anything... please?" was all he managed to get out before Rose pulled him into searing kiss._

_"You have no idea how long I've wanted to hear that." she murmured into his lips. The Doctor grinned, staring with dazed eyes at Rose, "What?" she asked him with a cheeky grin, her tongue grazing the tip of her teeth._

_"We should probably get going if we want to see your mum, you know what she's like." he told her, annoyed with himself for breaking the moment, but Rose nodded her head, still smiling sweetly, "Oh goody!" he squealed sarcastically, "Off to see your "boyfriend"!"_

_"What? Mickey? You think that we're still..." Rose shook her head, "No, no, no, no, we broke up after Christmas, it wasn't working, besides he's more of a brother to me." She smiled at him and the Doctor felt his hearts quicken as he zipped about the console, setting the destination for London, England, April 27th, 2006._

_"Off we go!" he cried as pulled the final lever. The two grinned at each other, waiting to see of the TARDIS would take them to the right place._

_oO*Oo_

_"Rose!" a shrill voice cried as a pink streak hurtled into Rose and tackling her in a bear hug. The Doctor grinned as Jackie Tyler peppered her daughter's face with kisses. The grin dissipated when the woman turned on him and grabbed his face, placing wet smooches all over his cheeks and nose._

_"Mum! Leave the Doctor be! Whatcha tryin' to do, drown him?" Rose joked as a disgusted grimace grew as the Doctor wiped at his face furiously._

_"Do you have to do that Jackie?" the Doctor whined. She gave him a condescending look and he shut right up. Mickey came barreling toward them, his arms spread wide, panting heavily, "Mickey! How've ya been?" the Doctor cried, a grin spreading across his face. Mickey nodded and Rose wrapped her arms around Mickey, pulling him into a hug, which, the Doctor noticed, went on for a rather long time, much to his annoyance. He cleared his throat, and Mickey let go of Rose, and he got another look from Jackie. Mickey looked at Jackie and then back at Rose,_

_"Happy Birthday Rosie!" they both cried simultaneously._

_"What d'you mean birthday?" she asked, her brow furrowing before her gaze turned back to the Doctor who was now intently studying a piece of graffiti on the wall, "Doctor, did you know this was my birthday?" she asked slowly._

_"Maaaybe..." he teased, grinning at her._

_"Oh shove off you big git." she muttered, grinning herself and the Doctor felt a rush of pride at the fact that his idea had worked._

_"What?" he asked as Rose crossed her arms, he sighed, "Happy birthday Rose Tyler."_

_"So I'm... 20? Right?" Jackie nodded, smiling and squeezing everyone into another hug, with Rose stuck right in the middle, "Ger off me!" a small squeal shot out of the middle of the group._

_"Sorry..." the Doctor looked down at his feet as he released everyone. He shuffled around, not daring to look up at the already awkward situation. A small blonde hurtled into his side, knocking the wind out of him as he staggered slightly at the weight that was wrapping around him._

_"It wasn't you fault." Rose whispered in his ear and he smiled slightly, hugging her back, "C'mon guys! Time for presents later, I wanna know what's been happenin' around here." she shouted, startling passerby's._

_"Right, let's get you inside, swee'eart." Jackie said, grabbing the Doctor and Rose by the hand and jogging up the stairs, "Okay, so Micks and I found some weird stuff about this-" Mickey cleared his throat, "What?" he gave her a pointed look, "Oh all right, Mickey found out about this school that has some "weird" activity going on about it."_

_The four shuffled into the flat, and Mickey kicked the door closed behind him, "Yeah, a lot of stuff about kids dissapearin' from children's homes and incredibly high GPAs, oh, and this one kid, Milo, he has the GPA in the UK, thought it might be somethin'..." The Doctor's brow furrowed as he let the thoughts mull over in his mind._

_"Yeah, we'll look into it, tomorrow maybe, but first: Rose's birthday!" he declared, lifting Rose up and swinging her around in circles._

_"I'm not five anymore." she grumbled as presents were shoved at her from all directions._

_"Oh, come on Rosie! We haven't seen you for over four months! What d'you expect us to do? Sulk about when you get back?" Jackie scolded, wagging her finger at Rose._

_"Mum! It's just I'm not a little girl anymore, you don't have to treat me like one." Rose shrugged, shuffling her feet against the beige carpet, "I just... I've been traveling for so long now, it's just I've grown up, I'm not the shopgirl from the Powell Estate anymore."**  
**_

_"Rose, Rose, Rose, you'll always be the little shopgirl form the Powell Estate, at least to me anyway, that's how our life's been. I think you'll find that wherever you go." her mum sighed._

_"Come on just take the presents Rose! It's your birthday, for God's sake just have fun!" Mickey practically shouted in her ear, shoving the package into her hands and waiting expectantly. She sighed and tore the pink wrappings off. She reached into the box and pulled out a hot pink Punky Fish jacket, "I thought you'd like another one, as you lost the other at Christmas." Rose tackled him in a hug and planted a kiss firmly on his cheek and the Doctor felt something eating away at his stomach._

_"Thanks Micks!" she cried, pasting a a wide smile on her face and dodging past her mum, to her room. She stared sadly at the empty pink room around her, the only things she hadn't taken with her: her dresser and her bed, stood out boldly compared to the spotless floor. Rose slid down the wall, clutching the jacket to her chest. Why were they so insistent about her birthday? Couldn't they just give her they gifts and leave her alone? She sighed, staring at the barren wall across from her. _

oO*Oo

Rose had been standing at the counter for some time now, gazing off at no point in particular, remembering what had transpired the day before, her birthday, she was nineteen now. She let that seep in for a second, not really believing it. It felt like linger than that, but she supposed it was just because of all the time she spent in the TARDIS.

"Get back to work Missy!" a stout cross dinner lady shouted at Rose, causing her to blink, after what must have been minutes.

"Sorry, Ma'am, sorry." Rose avoided the woman's gaze, to nervous to look anyone in the eye, except for the Doctor, but he'd already had his lunch period, so there was no one to joke with, nobody to talk to. She sighed as she carried the pot of left over mash to the garbage, and dumped it upside down, and watched the yellow goop seep out with disgust. Why did she have to get stuck with kitchen duty? Art, theater, the librarian! She could handle any of those, but she was drawing the line at dinner lady.

Rose plopped the the pot into the sink with a plink and watched the suds swimming around in the murky water as her memories took over once more.

oO*Oo

_As she sat against the hot pink wall, she thought of her life before the Doctor and frowned. How could she ever have lived her life like that, and be happy with it? It was a dull monotonous thing that often repeated itself, while now, she never knew what was coming next. _

_Rose gasped as a she felt something pierce her chest. Her hands flew to the place opposite her heart, the pain was overwhelming her. The last thing she saw was a golden haze that seemed to surround everyone._

_oO*Oo_

_She found herself looking up into the familiar warm brown eyes of the Doctor, but his eyes didn't have the normal happy glint to them, he looked worried, perturbed would be a better word. _

_"Cat got your tongue?" she giggled poking his nose. Rose waited for his chirpy voice to babble out, but he just stared at her, his brow furrowed, "What? Have I got something on my head?" The Doctor shook his head and gulped._

_"You... I came in because I heard a thump. I... I saw you... I saw you lying on the ground, your hands clasped over the right side of your chest. You were... glowing. Literally glowing gold, the last time I saw something like that, you-" he stopped short, realizing what he had been about to say._

_"What? I what, Doctor?" she asked, the grin gone from her lips._

_"You... You looked into the heart of the TARDIS-"_

_"And I flew it to Satellite 5 and turned the Daleks into dust and brought Jack back to life. Then you took the Vortex out of me..." Rose cut in automatically, before realizing the Doctor was staring at her again, "What?"_

_"You, you remember? I asked you once you had woken up, but you said that you couldn't... Bad Wolf..." he whispered, grasping her shoulders. Rose nodded her head slowly, not sure how the Doctor was taking the information, "But... how?"_

_"I had dreams and flash backs after you regenerated. I kept wondering why I kept having the same one over and over again, but then it hit me, that's what had happened." she stared at the rug, picking at loose threads and chewing her lip._

_"But that shouldn't be possible... unless..." he looked at her and Rose could tell he figured it out, "Unless Bad Wolf is still there..." Rose nodded slowly, burying her face into the pink jacket that was sprawled across her body, "TARDIS. Now." he said, dragging her out of the flat to the impossible blue box, "There must be something that can tell what's going on." He muttered, as he pulled her to the medbay and started rummaging through assorted scanners and x-ray machines._

_"What are you doing Doctor?" Rose pulled her hand from his grasp and waited for him to answer, he looked at her with the "calm" look in his eyes that told her if she got in the way, it wouldn't be pretty. She sat patiently as he ran a scanner over her and absorbed the information. Rose watched as his face went slack, and she knew something wrong must've happened. His eyes grew darker as they flickered between the results and Rose, and she couldn't help but feel that he had found out what she had known for a while now._

_"How?" he asked her, his eyes boring into hers._

_"I dunno, it just sort of happened. I figured it out a little after you had regenerated, but other than that, I didn't now how or why." Rose looked up, a bit scared of what she might see, but she couldn't tell what he was thinking or feeling then, he was completely blocked off._

_"Rose, we're talking about Bad Wolf, the thing that almost killed you, the thing that killed me. It's not something to be spoken about so lightly." he let out a tired as he ran a hand through his hair. Without another word he grabbed her hand and pulled her back to her mum's flat, not paying attention to either Jackie or Mickey's quizzical expressions, "So what about this school?" he asked with that gorgeous grin of his._

_oO*Oo_

The Doctor had gotten them jobs at the Deffery Vale High School, the school that Mickey had thought looked suspicious. They had been working for there of a day now and Rose was fed up with slopping mash onto plastic trays every day, but she was patient while the Doctor got his tests done, but he had been avoiding her since the discovery of Bad Wolf. She just wished he wouldn't be so secretive about all the emotions he had locked up inside of him.


	25. Just Minding My Business

**Author's Note:** I'm deliberately trying to post this one earlier then the last, 'cos well, I didn't post for over a month... but I have an excuse! Homework, a kitten that's rapidly growing who is very energetic (speaking of cats I got two more), and oh about seven or eight story ideas that are itching to be written out.

Just Minding My Business

Rose flung open the door of her mum's flat and kicked it shut, not caring as it slammed, shaking the hall.

"What's the matter swee'heart?" drifted from the kitchen. Rose did _not _want to deal with her mum right then. All she needed was a cup of strong tea and to be alone. Unfortunately Jackie never seemed to understand that. She grabbed a mug and poured water that had just been boiled over an Earl Grey tea bag, not looking at her mum, and pretending she hadn't heard her. Rose sat down heavily on the coach and watched as steam rose from the hot beverage clasped in her hands. She had realized she had hated mashed potatoes that day, she was never going to touch it again if it were possible.

A portion of the coach sank down as Jackie Tyler shifted next to her daughter and rubbed her back, cooing softly. Rose turned into her mum's arms and started sobbing, the Doctor had been acting distant ever since he had found out about Bad Wolf and it was eating at her from the inside.

"Sh, sh, sh. Oh, come on, what's wrong? Tell me, what is it." Jackie asked, patting Rose's back. Rose shook her head and went to her room and locked the door, flopping onto her bed, face first. She didn't bother to get up and get in her jimjams and crawl under the covers. She let sleep carry her away, stopping the salty streams of water flowing down her cheeks. And for once Rose didn't have a nightmare, she didn't have a single dream, all she saw was an unnerving emptiness.

~oOo~

A knock at the door opened Rose's eyes a fraction, before they closed heavily again. She felt the bed beside her sink as someone sat down. Thinking it was her mum, Rose swatted said being away and snuggled in deeper to the nest she had managed to create around herself. Before she knew it, the person was laying down next to her, and her heart raced as to arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her back. Her eyes flew open as she shifted in the strong grasp and she was met by the gaze of two familiar, impossibly old eyes.

"Mph, go away. 'M tired." She groaned to the Doctor, snuggling into his chest, clearly meaning just the opposite of that.

"All right then." He murmured, pulling her closer, and managing to pull the quilt out from under her, without her feeling anything, and pulling it over the two of them. He dropped a quick kiss on the top of her head. Rose decided the Doctor's chest was a much more comfortable then her pillow and sighed as she drifted back to sleep, though this time not alone. As they slept the two of them managed to cocoon themselves together, cut off from the rest of the world.

~oOo~

Jackie Tyler was tired of her daughter not letting her in. She was going to do something, anything to make her daughter talk. She laughed realizing how evil it made her sound, but in reality she was worried, spending time with that martian wasn't doing anything good for her. She dried off her soapy hands and put the mash in the fridge, to keep it good, and put the chicken pie in the oven, surely this wouldn't take _that _much time.

She stomped to Rose's and opened the door loudly, prepared to have a shouting match with Rose. Jackie stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the giant pink mound. It was too bi for just one person to be inside, and she was suspicious that she knew the other occupant: Mickey. She had seen how he had been eyeing Rose the day before, even after the break up, and there was no way she was going to let him get randy with her daughter. Just as she was about to drag him out of the bed and scold him, a flash of pinstripe caught her eye as a hand shifted. It wasn't Mickey, who was sleeping with her daughter. It was the Doctor. She groaned, not happy with the stream of pictures coarsing through her brain. She did _not_ want to know what those two got up to in the TARDIS. This was her daughter for Pete's Sake!

Her eyes seemed to be glued to them, as the scene unfolded, that Rose was smiling against the Doctor's chest, and he cradled her against him. She noticed that they both seemed to have all their clothes on, but she couldn't be sure because of the damned quilt they were wrapped in. She and Rose were definitely going to have a talk when she woke up.

Jackie tore herself from the room, feeling like a bad mother for leaving her daughter there unsupervised. She caught herself, Rose was nineteen, she could make her own decisions, but she would prefer it if she did them out of _her_ flat. Especially if those plans involved sleeping with a man, or alien for that matter, and especially if they weren't going to put a do not disturb sign up or any message telling her to keep out. She did not want to walk in on her daughter doing something she didn't want to see.

Pulling the pie out of the oven, she thought over this, realizing that she too, had done exactly what her daughter was doing, mind though that the man wasn't an alien and was in fact her boyfriend, soon to be husband. Maybe Rose and the Doctor were just that, going to be married, and if so, why hadn't Rose told her? And why was she acting so moody? She hadn't had sex with this pluto person had she? Jackie made a face, not wanting to think about her daughter doing that.

After letting the pie cool and collecting Rose's untouched mug of tea from the living room and various cups and plates from around the rest of the flat, Jackie cut the pie into eight even slices, one for her, one for Rose, one for the Doctor, one for Mickey if decided to come over, and lunch for tomorrow. Satisfied with her work she slide it into the fridge with a clank and picked up a magazine before plopping down on the couch and began flipping through the brightly colored pages.

~oOo~

Rose's eyes fluttered open and found two brown ones gazing back at her. She smiled sleepily and leaned into the Doctor's embrace. Her eyes snapped open, and she sat bolt upright, the Doctor was in her room. The room that she had locked.

A flash of silver glinted from the interior of the Doctor's jacket. The Sonic Screwdriver, of course, that's how he'd gotten in. She sighed and cuddled back next to him. He'd never change with his whole "Doesn't kill, doesn't maim, but it's very good at opening doors." Opinion he had told her earlier in the week. She smiled slightly, remembering all the times they had to use the sonic, _almost_ every single adventure they had involved something or other either being licked by the Doctor, which she had to say worried her a bit, or scanned.

"Rose? You okay?" he asked slowly, taken aback by her reaction. Rose shook her head slowly, "Nah, I'm fine. I'm fine, just a bit startled that you were in my room, in my bed, with me." She lied, attempting a smile. He grinned and pulled her out of bed, towards the kitchen, "Come on!"

"Oi." she tugged him, so that he turned around before he barreled into Rose, knocking them onto the bed. The two giggled like children, but their laughter was cut short when a they heard,

"Get the hell off my daughter!" The Doctor winced at the all too familiar screech of one Jackie Tyler. The next thing he knew Jackie was tugging him off Rose, "I knew it! You to are together like that!" she squealed almost in delight, "What did I say? I told Mickey that you would end up together and look at how right I was." She mumbled to herself, folding her arms and scowling, "That you would shag in my flat is disgusting." Jackie scolded, just as the oven timer beeped, "Oh must be gettin' dinner out of the oven! But don't let me catch you fondling Rose again."

The Doctor blushed, and Rose giggled, oh this was going to be a long day.


	26. Old Faces

**Author's Note: **Here's the next chapter, also I had to scramble a bit with this one, cos homework has taken up all my time. Criticism and comments are always lovely. Also thank you very much for all the support you've given, and I'm very sorry I haven't updated recently at all. I have gone through many bowls of ice cream in the process...

Old Faces

A shadow passed in front of one of the looming windows that were in the school. Rose thought back to the stories her and her mate Shareen had heard, how the teachers never left the school, and slept there at night. She had always been to nervous to actually put these to the test, but she had gotten as far as picking the lock of the front doors, when Mickey had tapped her on the shoulder and she had screamed, while Mickey and Shareen had collapsed in fits of laughter. Rose had never tried to break in ever again, nor did she break into any minimarts, etc.

Rose shivered. If Shareen could see her now, traveling the stars and seeing things that she could never dream of, though knowing Shareen, she would be asked if she and the Doctor were "together" and if he was any good. Rose could feel her face flushing, as the Doctor looked over at her curiously.

"What's going on in your head, Ms. Tyl-ah, that's making you blush so furiously?" He waggled his eyebrows and grinned. This only made Rose blush further.

Somewhere behind them, bags dropped to the ground and high pitched squeal was emitted, as Rose was tackled to the ground.

"ROSE TYLER! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN FOR THE LAST TWO YEARS?" Shareen's shrill voice spilled out.

"Shareen? What're you doing here? And since when have you ever woken up before noon?" Rose mumbled through a mass of chocolate curls, trying to free herself from the weight of her best mate. Shareen had other plans.

"Ooh, who's this, then?" She purred, jerking her head in the direction of the Doctor, who was now scowling, "Is this the man you ran off with?" She winked at him, her eyes roving up and down his body, "Well, I can see why you did."

"Not now, Shareen." Rose said, gritting her teeth, "Now come on, shift." Shareen scrambled off of her, taking a few steps closer to the Doctor, "Doctor, this is Shareen, Shareen this is the Doctor, and no not that kind of doctor." Rose added, noticing how Shareen had perked up when she heard the word "doctor". She threw a pointed look at Rose,

"I wasn't doing anything."

"Well you were thinking about it." Rose said, some things never did change. Though she wasn't sure how much she liked Shareen's attentions towards the Doctor.

"Nice to meet you Shareen, though, I've heard a lot about you!" He said brightly, and Rose mentally whacked her head against the palm of her hand, the Doctor had the worst timing.

"Oh really?" Shareen asked, resting an elbow on his shoulder, smiling up at him. The Doctor gulped, realizing what he'd gotten himself into, nodding slowly before looking wide eyed at Rose. She got the message.

Shareen's eyes widened when her headrest disappeared and she tumbled to her knees,

"Rude." She mumbled, brushing herself off, before making an obscene gesture at the Doctor. The Doctor was still looking at Shareen like she had just stolen the last piece of chocolate cake, and he couldn't believe it.

Shareen turned back to Rose, pretending that the Doctor wasn't there anymore, "So I take it, you and him are..." She questioned, grinning in that way that people do when they're trying to get you to spill. Rose actually hit herself on the forehead this time.

"I don't have time for this Shareen." She said, trying to step past her, but instead she found herself pinned to the school wall, "I have to get to work!" She said, squirming.

"Mmhmm, riiiight." Shareen said, rolling her eyes, "I thought you quit your job at Henrik's when you left with that git." She jerked her head back at the Doctor again, "'Sides, we need a girls day out."

"I can't, Shareen, I don't want to get sacked. How 'bout Saturday? I'm pretty sure I can do Saturday. Isn't that right, Doctor?" She said, making sure the Doctor scribbled it down on one of the various sticky notes he had in his pockets, "Okay? Now I've really got to go! See you at five?" Shareen sighed, letting Rose step away from the wall.

"Fine. You and I have a _lot_ to talk about, missy, and don't you dare think of ditching." Shareen grinned, pulling Rose into a hug.

"Wouldn't dream of it!" Rose grinned back, "Just nothing too weird this time, okay? I mean the lingerie shopping was a bit much and-" The Doctor cleared his throat, his face burning crimson, "Right, I best be off. See you tonight?" Rose said, letting go of Shareen, and waving.

"Definitely." She called back before running back towards her flat.

~oOo~

The Doctor ran his hands over his face as he sat in a chair in the strange room they called a "Teacher's Lounge", grading lab reports his students had done about Inertia. Mickey was right, this Milo kid knew everything, "The _vis insita_, or innate force of matter, is a power of resisting by which every body, as much as in it lies, endeavours to preserve its present state, whether it be of rest or of moving uniformly forward in a straight line." He read to himself. Okay that was not how a fourteen year human would write, something was messing with Milo. He laughed at that thought, and muttered it to himself, "Messing with Milo, I like it, though it's most certainly not a good thing, ah..." He stopped, looking up to see other teachers staring at him, "Hello! I'm just gonna - papers." And with that he looked back down at the pile on his desk and sighed. This was why he did not like teaching.

~oOo~

Rose cursed when she remembered that she had forgotten to ask the Doctor if she could swap jobs. She pulled on the blue apron with a grudge, slipped a hair net on her head, and tugged two rubber gloves onto her fingers, before reporting to the head cook that she was present and on time.

She popped the miniature pizzas in the oven, set the temperature and the time, before going off and fishing the leftover mash from yesterday out of the fridge and heated it up, and placed the vat in the warming chamber. The routine had already sunk into her brain, and she kept doing her perfunctory job, just going through the motions, not stopping to wonder what goes where, or why. She was going to kill him. The job was terribly dull, and she didn't think she could stand it any longer. He better watch out at lunch.

~oOo~

The Doctor winced as he plopped back into the armchair in the Teacher's Lounge. _L__unch went well_, he thought, remembering how dreadfully annoyed Rose had seemed with him. Maybe he shouldn't have made all the jokes about her being a dinner lady... though she had happily eaten all his chips, and he had heard the shady conversation that teacher had had. How had Milo failed? He was the best student in class, though he had to admit, that the girl, Melissa was second. And there was definitely something funny about that Headmaster.

_I mean, how is it comfortable to stand straight as a board the whole time, and why hover over your students every single minute?_ He wondered, flipping through the reports to look busy, even though he'd finished them before lunch. Heaving himself off of his chair, he went to go "socialize" and find out if anybody else was noticing strange goings ons as well, grabbing a few biscuits in passing.

_The History teacher will do nicely, _his mind whispered as he walked up to the walrus of man, complete with mustache and balding head.

"So, it's Mr. Parsons, right?" He inquired, shaking the man's hand with enthusiasm. Mr. Parsons nodded, a bit taken a back,

"That's right Mr. Smith."

"Ah, well straight to the point, this might sound a bit mad, but have you noticed anything strange about any of your students? Say, I dunno, knowledge that is on the rather detailed side of the scale, extensive vocabulary, and I mean bigger than normal, the ability to complete exercises in minutes?" The Doctor, asked, nibbling on one of the biscuits, _lemon_, he noted.

"You've noticed it too?" Mr. Parsons said, running a hand through the little hair he had left on his pale scalp which had started sweating quite vigorously, "Well obviously you have, why else would you be asking if you didn't. I tell you something changed when that, Mr. Finch got hired. I mean only yesterday I had a twelve-year-old girl give me the exact height of the Walls of Troy... in cubits." He began pacing and the Doctor watched him curiously, mentally taking notes.

"And, it's ever since the new headmaster arrived?" The Doctor repeated. The man nodded, wringing his hands together,

"Finch arrived three months ago. Next day, half the staff got flu. Finch replaced them with that lot." He nodded towards a gaggle of teachers, all in dark grey suits with white shirts, and black ties. The Doctor wondered what Rose would think if he dressed like that. Nope, back to the subject. Mr. Parsons continued, his eyes bulging, "Except for the teacher you replaced, and that was just plain weird, her winning the lottery like that."

_Damn, he's onto me._ The Doctor thought, before replying quickly, "How's that weird?"

"She never played! Said the ticket was posted through her door at midnight." The Doctor nodded, trying not to appear miffed at the thought, and munched on another biscuit.

"Hmm! The world is very strange." He muttered, still chewing. He and Mr. Parsons weren't able to continue their ponderings as the all to familiar voice of Mr. Finch cut in,

"Excuse me, colleagues, a moment of your time." The Doctor turned and stared wide eyed at the petite woman standing next to Mr. Finch. He hadn't seen that face in, oh so many years, it was hard to remember how long ago it was. He rose to his feet, turning all the way around to face the two of them, his eyes never leaving her face. He didn't need to hear her name even as Finch "May I introduce Miss Sarah Jane Smith. Miss Smith is a journalist, who's writing a profile about me for the Sunday Times."

Oh, good old Sarah Jane, always improvising her way into things. If she were actually a reporter, she'd have a different air about her, no this was just Sarah Jane having some fun. The Doctor could feel the corners of his mouth turning upwards, he stopped himself from straight out grinning, surely it would be a bit odd if a random stranger started staring at her, because she wouldn't recognize him now, would she.

"I thought it might be useful for her to get 'a view from the trenches', so to speak. Don't spare my blushes." Finch continued, smiling in that stiff way he seems to only know, before leaving to go prowl some more classes probably.

Sarah's Jane looked at him, and the Doctor could feel his smile growing, as she approached him.

"Hello!" She said, grinning herself. Oh, she never did change, did she?

"Oh, I should think so!" He grinned goofily back at her, unable to control his expressions.

"And, you are... ?" Sara Jane asked, and the Doctor remembered the Mummies, Daleks, Cybermen, and Sontarans.

"Hm? Uh, Smith. John Smith." He stuttered, still not looking away.

"John Smith ? I used to have a friend who sometimes went by that name." She said and her voice seemed almost to be lamenting, though she still smiled, as she glanced at her feet.

"Well, it's a very common name." The Doctor rushed. _Oh Rose would love her, they'd get on fantastically._ He thought, unable to look at something other then Sarah Jane.

"He was a very uncommon man." She shrugged, seeming to remember those days fondly, she held out a hand, "Nice to meet you!"

"Nice to meet you! Yeah! Very nice! More than nice, brilliant!" He enthused, shaking her hand firmly, the grin still plastered to his face. Was he being to enthusiastic, well it didn't matter now.

"Um... so, um, have you worked here long?" Sarah Jane withdrew her hand, and looked around the office, seeming a bit weirded out. _Okay, so maybe a little bit too enthusiastic..._

"No! Um, it's only my second day." He wiped the smile off his face, trying to seem more serious.

"Oh, you're new, then? So, what do you think of the school? I mean, this new curriculum?" She asked, still observing the other teachers. Ah, here she goes, getting at the information that people don't often say aloud. The Doctor just smiled at her as she continued, "So many children getting ill, doesn't that strike you as odd?"

"You don't sound like someone just doing a profile." Oh this reminded him so much of the years he spent traveling with her. Good old Sarah Jane, good old Sarah Jane.

"Well, no harm in a little investigation while I'm here." She muttered.

"No. Good for you." He grinned as she went to interrogate the other teachers, "Good for you. Oh, good for you, Sarah Jane Smith." The pride in his words completely unhidden as he heard the bell ring and sauntered off to his next class, grinning.

~oOo~

Shareen rapped on Jackie's door, and waited for that familiar bleached head of hair to poke out. Instead it was that rude pretty man who Rose had run off with.

"Oh, hello again Shareen! I expect you want to see Rose." He grinned at her. She rolled her eyes and pushed past him, "Well someone's had a tiff." She heard him mutter.

"Good job, Sherlock." She muttered, "Roooooose!" She turned around the hallway, so that she almost collided into the blond blur.

"Hiya." Rose said, throwing her arms around Shareen's neck.

"Hiya yourself." Shareen laughed, "Now come on, let's go somewhere where your Mum and your man can't interrupt us." Rose blushed at this,

"He's not _my_ man." She mumbled.

"Oh come on, the way he was looking at you? You're blind as a bat, the both of you." Shareen tugged Rose to the door, and hastily put her in her jacket, "My place. Now." Seeing as Shareen's flat was in the next building, it wasn't much of a walk. As soon as they walked into the habitually messy flat Shareen turned on her friend, "Spill already! These past two years have been eating me up!" Rose sighed,

"All right. I've just been sight seein', you know? Around the world, learning random bits in different languages, and all that other stuff we skipped in secondary school. I've just gone traveling, nothing more." She crossed her arms, "If you want a story I'll tell one, but I'm' not sure which to tell, so don't count on the telling being very good." Shareen rolled her eyes, typical Tyler stubbornness.

"Fine, name five places you've been." She crossed her arms, waiting to see if Rose would actually answer, "And give a fact about what you did in each of those places." Sure she was asking something difficult, but if Rose actually was traveling the world she would be able to say immediately.

"Okay, here it goes. Scotland, on the road between Aberdeen and Balamory, we ran into a pack of wolves, and went to Edinburgh as well, and almost missed out train. USA, Utah, Salt Lake City, found a bunker that had been converted into a museum for artifacts. Japan, Tokyo, I got a silk kimono which I can show you, and we traveled to Kyoto to the see the Golden Temple, the Kinkakuji Temple. Whales, Cardiff, we heard a reading of _A Christmas Carol_ and got to play Victorian dress up. Spain, Barcelona, almost got a very adorable dog and snuck into an official party. Now_ that_ was fun, a bit like you and me, eh?" Rose grinned. Shareen stared at her,

"So you really did go traveling, then." Shareen plopped onto the well worn leather couch and stared at the wall, "Okay... Now about this Doctor of yours." She waggled her eyebrows and Rose groaned, "What?" She grinned.

"The conversation always does lead to who I'm dating or who you think I should date, doesn't it?" Rose sighed, plunking down next to Shareen. Shareen scoffed, letting her mouth fall open in a "surprised" way.

"I never!" She laughed, "Now come on spill. Please?" She said, flashing Rose her best puppy eyes.

"Fine." Rose gave in.

~oOo~

Rose let the door click behind her, as she came into her Mum's flat.

"I'm back, for those of you who wanted know." She called, coming into the living room and throwing the bag of left overs, and other little things she and Shareen had gotten, as they had decided to go to the shopping center.

"Good to know you didn't die." Jackie called, poking her head in from the kitchen. Rose laughed, and went to her room,

"Doctor?" He wasn't there. That puzzled her, why would he leave? "Mum, I'm gonna go check the TARDIS for the Doctor, okay?" She called, already out the door and flying down the stairs. She searched the console room and was almost to the library when she heard a voice that didn't belong,

"You ready to break into school, babe?" It was Mickey and behind him was the Doctor.


End file.
